The draft amendment proposes that employees can work up to 10 hours a day and 48 hours a week, with total working hours – including overtime – capped at 12 hours per day.
Published Jun 19, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jun 19, 2025 | 8:00 AM
It also seeks to raise the permissible overtime limit from 50 hours to 144 hours over a three-month period.
Synopsis: Employee unions in Karnataka have strongly opposed the state government’s proposed amendment to extend daily working hours in the IT sector to 10, calling it “modern-day slavery” and warning of serious health and social consequences.
Employees’ unions have described the Karnataka government’s proposed amendment to the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961 – aimed at increasing the daily working hours from nine to ten – as “modern-day slavery in the making.”
The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) has called on the entire working class to resist the state government’s move to increase working hours in the IT, ITeS, and BPO sectors to as much as 12 hours per day.
On 18 June, the Labour Department presented the proposal during a meeting with various stakeholders from the industry. Labour Secretary and senior officials from the department were in attendance.
“KITU representatives strongly raised our opposition to the proposed amendment, which poses an attack on the basic right of any worker to have a personal life,” Suhas Adiga, General Secretary, Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union told South First.
The draft amendment proposes that employees can work up to 10 hours a day and 48 hours a week, with total working hours – including overtime – capped at 12 hours per day.
It also seeks to raise the permissible overtime limit from 50 hours to 144 hours over a three-month period. Establishments with fewer than 10 employees would remain exempt from the Act.
The proposed changes are intended to benefit IT and ITeS companies, including those engaged in software development, backend operations, and hardware services, by reducing compliance requirements and introducing more flexibility in work arrangements.
The move follows an advisory from the Union government urging states to review and update work hour regulations in line with evolving industrial needs.
The Centre noted that similar amendments have already been implemented in BJP-ruled states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
During the meeting, KITU said it highlighted research on the health impact of prolonged working hours among IT professionals. It cited the State Emotional Wellbeing Report 2024, which found that 90 percent of corporate employees in India under the age of 25 are struggling with anxiety.
KITU also pointed to rising cases of deaths and suicides attributed to work pressure in the IT sector.
“The recent suicide of a software engineer at OLA’s Artificial Intelligence unit in Bangalore, due to extreme work pressure, underlines this situation. Increasing working hours will further aggravate this situation. The Karnataka Government, in their hunger to please their corporate bosses, completely neglects the most fundamental right of any individual – the right to live,” Suhas added.
Meanwhile, employees from the IT sector say the rules will not really affect them, since they already work well beyond the official limits.
“There are already instances where we have to work overtime based on the tasks. It will affect our health, and I have to travel two hours up and down, so there’s that. It will be very difficult for working mothers – won’t be able to pay attention to their kids,” an IT analyst with an MNC in Bengaluru told South First.
Similarly, another employee who is an associate director with one of the Big Four accounting firms in the city said, “We already work long hours and the model doesn’t have an overtime benefit. So it doesn’t matter to me.”
KITU has urged the government to reconsider the proposal, warning that any attempt to move forward with the amendment would be viewed as a direct challenge to the 20 lakh employees working in Karnataka’s IT/ITeS sector.
South First has reached out to the Labour Secretary’s office for a comment.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
