Bengaluru IT employees' union protests against bill to extend working hours: Report

The employees union rallied in Bengaluru's Freedom Park against a proposed bill that would extend a work day from a maximum of 10 hours to 14 hours.

The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) on Saturday staged a demonstration at Bengaluru's Freedom Park to protest against the controversial proposal to increase working hours in the IT and BPO sectors, the Moneycontrol reported.

The controversial proposal aims to extend daily work hours in the IT sector from a maximum of 10 hours to 14 hours.

During the protest, the Additional Commissioner of the Labour Department, Manjunath G, spoke to reporters and assured that the concerns of the demonstrators would be reviewed by the government after receiving their petition opposing the bill.

This comes after the Karnataka state cabinet recently shelved its controversial proposal to extend daily work hours in the IT sector from a maximum of 10 hours to 14 hours. The decision came amid significant pushback from industry leaders and associations.

The proposed changes would have allowed IT and BPO firms to extend daily working hours beyond this limit, up to a total of 125 hours over a three-month period. The government argued that this change aims to boost the state's share of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India from 45 percent to 50 percent, as stated in documents accessed by the publication.

The KITU has been actively opposing the plan. It's representatives warn that extending working hours might lead companies to switch from a three-shift system to a two-shift system, which could result in job losses for about one-third of the workforce.

In the midst of the protest, tensions flared when members of another IT employee union arrived with their own banner, leading to a brief altercation. Police intervened to diffuse the situation, escorting three individuals away from the scene to restore order, the report noted.