NEW DELHI: Two southern states – Karnataka and Tamil Nadu – have created a stir by passing legislation amending the Factories Act, 1948, to allow for extending the working day up to 12 hours a day. This will help employers like international iPhone vendor Foxconn to bring in more flexible timings and make their operations more productive.
These labour changes are necessary, the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments say, if India is to compete with China and become the world’s new manufacturing hub.
Replying to critics, the two governments point out that the 48-hours-per-week regimen will remain unchanged, and those who introduce longer hours per day will have to recalibrate to shorter 4 or 5 working days per week.
Be it as it may, the new legislation has stirred a hornet’s nest.
Tamil Nadu, seeing the writing on the wall, has put the amendment on hold.
The Karnataka government frankly concedes it has been done at the behest of Foxconn to bring labour conditions in line with the competitive sweatshops operating in China, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Industrial Revolution
The lawmakers of the two states seem to be blissfully unaware of the evolution of the 8-hour working day. The 18th century Industrial Revolution in Britain created a new capitalist economy on machine production and 12 to 16 hours of debilitating work in slave labour conditions. Children too went to work for a pittance. Amidst this law of the jungle, socialist and English entrepreneur Robert Owen first raised the demand for a 10-hour working day in 1810.
Owen’s slogan: ‘Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest’ – caught on with the trade unions. Legislation followed. The US Congress in 1868 brought in a universal 8-hour day. In the UK, it was the Beckton East London gas workers who after a prolonged strike forced a reduction of their 18-hour day to an 8-hour shift in 1869; and 4 days after the October Revolution of 1917, the 8-hour day was among the first edicts promulgated by the new Soviet state.
The British Raj in India too faced the demand.
Social reformer BR Ambedkar was the first to push for the 8-hour working day as Labour Member to the Viceroy’s Council in 1942. Finally, it was legislation that completed the circle. Section 54 of the Factories Act, 1948, legalized 9 hours of work and half an hour of break time in between to provide rest to the working hand, while Section 51 capped the number of hours of work per week at 48.
Unfortunately, though this legislation exists more in its breach, it still acts as a deterrent to those wanting to cross the line. And if we dismantle what we have won over centuries of advocacy, those at the bottom of the pyramid will be left defenseless. Scratch the surface, and it is a laissez-faire regime that Foxconn and other production chain contractors are now demanding. It is a regime based on high productivity, long working hours, and mandatory overtime.
The Foxconn story
For those who have been following Foxconn’s history chart in China, know it is not a pretty picture.
The company’s credibility came into question when in 2010 there were a spate of suicides linked to low pay and brutal working conditions at the Foxconn City industrial park in Shenzhen. Mental illness and breakdowns were personified in nets being hung out under the ledges of overcrowded dormitories to prevent workers from jumping to the ground.
Outraged public opinion and intervention by Apple forced the company to improve wage rates. However, during the Covid pandemic, pressure for ramping up production of the iPhone 14 Pro, brought back the same conditions of assembly line harassment in Foxconn’s newer facilities in China’s impoverished provinces such as Henan, Hubei, and Sichuan.
In a long read, the magazine Rest of The World has documented the life and working conditions at Foxconn’s compound in Zhengzhou through conversations stretching over several months with a worker nick-named ‘Hunter’. The ‘iPhone City’ reviewed makes about half of the world’s iPhones, covers an area of 5.6 square kilometers, and at full capacity employs some 200,000 workers.
‘Hunter’ describes in detail how in a normal 10-hour shift he had to attach a tiny cable to the back of an iPhone cover, which charges the battery, and then screw it into place with two tiny screws for every iPhone. His target of 600 phones and 1,200 screws per shift can only be done at a relentless pace and without rest or toilet breaks. Falling behind the production schedule meant supervisors yelling at him, and the loss of bonuses and stoppage of overtime.
‘Hunter’ also talks of the windowless conditions and being forced into compulsory living on campus due to pandemic restrictions. Many workers fled for home after dodging guards and climbing the fences; sometimes there was violence as company executives forced an unbearable pace of work. “iPhones are made in hell”, he concludes.
Back to India. Working hours that allow rest and recreation are all about the dignity of labour. And our governments must reexamine legislation that tend to compromise this important principle.