IT, ITES sectors to benefit the most with 10-hour shifts

A file photo of a tech park in Bengaluru.
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Among the biggest beneficiaries of the amendment being proposed to the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishment Act, 1961, will be hundreds of companies in the Information Technology and Information Technology-Enabled Services (IT & ITES) sectors offering software services, backend IT services and hardware sales, among others.

The State government has proposed to increase the daily working hours to 10 from the current nine hours, besides allowing more overtime hours. A meeting is being held on Wednesday to discuss the proposals.

“The amendment will legitimise the violation of working hours that is already happening in the sector,” said Meenakshi Sundaram, general secretary, CITU, Karnataka, calling it at attempt to “legalise the illegal act”.

Succumbing to pressure

Trade unions argued that this was being pushed by the Centre. Mr. Sundaram, said, “It is unfortunate that the Congress government is not trying to establish a different policy from that of the BJP government. It is succumbing to the pressure of the Centre and compromising the basic rights of the citizens of Karnataka.”

Pointing out to a similar exercise by the State government for the factory workers in the State, he said that this would only reduce employment generating potential while helping only profit making. “Their idea of to keep shops and establishments for long hours hoping to increase the turnover. However, people do not have purchasing capacity. Instead, the government should work towards increasing the income of people.” Mr. Sundaram said that the government has allowed simplification of record maintenance, certification and book maintenance among others.

The absence of a strict compliance and monitoring, AITUC State secretary M. Satyananda said, could lead to “wage theft” where employers could force employees to work for longer hours without increasing wages. “How can the Labour Department, which faces staff shortage, inspect thousands of commercial establishments? There will be no mechanism to monitor. Increasing hours would reduce the rest period for workers as well,” he said.

‘Ease of doing business’

Taking a contrary view, president of Karnataka Employers’ Association B.C. Prabhakar said that it would help in “ease of doing business” by exempting establishments employing less than 10 persons from submitting documents.

“In Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand, the exemption for submitting annual returns has been exempted to establishments that hire less than 20 persons,” said Mr. Prabhakar. He said that increase in the cap for daily working hours and extra overtime is a “progressive measure.” “It legitimises what is already going on,” he said.