BENGALURU : Over 300 employees raised slogans at Freedom Park on Saturday against the controversial proposal presented by the Karnataka government to extend the working hours of IT, ITeS and BPO employees from the mandated 10 to 14 hours.
A memorandum was handed over by the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) to Manjunath G, Additional Commissioner, Labour Department, who assured their demands will be taken up by the government and said the government is on the side of employees.
“On behalf of lakhs of workers employed in the IT sector in Bengaluru and the rest of Karnataka who are agitated by the proposed amendments, KITU requests the government of Karnataka to abandon the proposed amendments to the Shop and Commercial Establishments Act. Necessary steps should be taken to get the current labour laws applicable to the IT industry to monitor and regulate them in the interest of guaranteeing reasonable decent service conditions to the IT workmen,” the memorandum stated.
For the past two weeks, IT and ITeS employees in Karnataka, under KITU’s leadership, have been preparing for this demonstration. So far, over 10,000 employees have registered with the union and the number is expected to improve further. The union is eyeing the next assembly session in Belagavi to generate momentum against the proposed bill.
WORKING HOURS
Through a bill in the State Assembly, the labour minister Santosh Lad aims to bring a legislation that would change the current system stipulating 10 hours for work, including intervals, and change of shifts and two hours overtime to a 14-hour work day.