Modern-Day Slavery: Karnataka IT Workers Reject 12-Hour Workday Proposal

A proposal by the Government of Karnataka to amend labour law provisions in order to permit 12-hour workdays in the IT, IT-enabled Services (ITeS), and BPO sectors has drawn sharp criticism from employee representatives, unions, and labour rights advocates. The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) has denounced the move as a direct assault on worker dignity and a blatant attempt to serve corporate interests at the expense of the workforce’s health, rights, and livelihoods.

The proposed amendment to the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act was tabled during a stakeholder meeting convened by the state’s Labour Department on June 18. The meeting was attended by the Labour Secretary and senior department officials alongside industry representatives. KITU, representing the voice of IT sector workers, was present, with General Secretary Suhas Adiga, President VJK, and Secretary Lenil Babu raising objections to the proposal.

KITU’s leadership warned that the amendment would effectively normalize a 12-hour working day, dismantling the current legal cap of 10 hours (including overtime), and laying the groundwork for mass retrenchment. By allowing companies to move from a three-shift system to a two-shift system, the change would potentially render one-third of the workforce redundant, a move KITU views as calculated and profit-driven.

The union underscored the growing toll that extended work hours are already taking on India’s white-collar workforce. Citing the 2024 State Emotional Wellbeing Report, KITU pointed out that 90 percent of corporate employees under 25 are struggling with anxiety, with overwork and toxic workplace cultures playing a major role. Suicides related to overwork are no longer rare. The recent case of a software engineer at OLA’s Artificial Intelligence unit in Bangalore, who died by suicide under extreme work pressure, is only the latest in a troubling pattern that has come to define India’s tech sector.

KITU argued that far from modernising labour law, this proposal drags the state deeper into a corporate-feudal compact, where governments act less as regulators and more as facilitators of unchecked capital accumulation. “The Karnataka government, in its hunger to please its corporate bosses, is ignoring the most basic principle of labour — that workers are not machines,” the union’s statement read.

The amendment also appears to fly in the face of international labour trends. Countries across Europe and Latin America are experimenting with shorter workweeks and right-to-disconnect laws, based on growing evidence that productivity does not increase with longer hours, and that overwork severely undermines physical and mental health. Even within India, resistance is growing. In 2024, the Karnataka government had attempted to push through an even more extreme measure, proposing a 14-hour workday for IT employees. That attempt was beaten back due to sustained pressure from KITU and widespread employee mobilization.

Yet the re-emergence of such proposals reflects a deeper structural issue: the state’s increasing alignment with corporate capital, especially in the digital economy. In a sector that employs over two million people in Karnataka alone, the stakes of such a legal shift are enormous. According to KITU, this latest attempt is part of a broader project to normalize precarious, high-intensity, and expendable labour as a permanent condition within India’s IT sector.

KITU has called on the Karnataka government to immediately withdraw the proposed amendment, warning that proceeding with it will be treated as a direct confrontation with the state’s entire IT workforce. The union has also issued a broader call to all employees in the IT/ITeS sector to unite, organize, and actively resist what it views as an “inhuman attempt to institutionalize exploitation.”

As Karnataka positions itself as a global tech hub, the battle over work hours and workers’ rights may become a defining test of how far the state — and the country — is willing to go in sacrificing labour to appease industry. For the thousands of workers now being asked to accept 12-hour shifts as the new normal, the question is no longer just about schedules — it is about survival.