The Indian IT-BPO union, Union for Information & Technology Enabled Services (UNITES) is gearing up to file a public interest litigation (PIL) against the policy of extended working hours allegedly followed by IT and BPO companies operating in India .

UNITES alleged that over the past couple of months, these firms have been imposing the longer working hours on their employees. If UNITES’ allegations are to be believed, then it implies a violation of Indian Factories Act, 1948 which outlines the limit daily working duration to only eight hours.

Speaking to IT Examiner over the phone, UNITES India secretary general, R Karthik Shekhar said, “The labour law in India allows an eight-hour working day, whereas in most IT companies in India people are involuntarily working for over 12 hours daily which is a violation of the same law”.

Shekhar further informed, “The lawyers are working on the matter and collecting all the data. Right now, before we file, we need to collect all the data, as it has happened across the globe. Once, we are done with documentation part; our lawyers will be filing the PIL”.

The first of its kind in India, UNITES has also acquired affiliation from the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). The union is an Indian arm of the Union Network International (UNI), which has over 16 million workers in 13 different sectors from 163 countries.

Connecting this alleged move from the players with the ongoing lay-offs, Karthik said that some firms have this double standard as they are laying-off employees for not having enough projects. He questioned that if there are not enough projects and then what are these employees working for in their extended working hours?

UNITES doesn’t provide cushion to NASSCOM. Maintaining the same line, it has demanded clarification from the industry body.

The much-talked about best HR practices in IT companies can come under the storm of strong criticism with their alleged present stance.

A BPO employee from Convergys said, “We sometimes need to work on overtime basis but that’s definitely not a forced one. Moreover, my company makes adequate payment for the extra working hours. We don’t have any complaint against them”.

A terminated BPO employee from 24 customer said, “Some of the companies put too much pressure which results to performance dipping. They must do something about their “best” HR practices”.

Nasscom Chairman, Ganesh Natarajan has reportedly said that he believes stressing on imcreased input is always a mistake as the industry needs to focus on more productivity and value addition on the output side. 

Nasscom is expected to come out with guidelines on the working hours matter.
 
On asking to name few companies that are imposing extended working hours, Shekhar said, “I am not going to comment on that but come companies are definitely doing that. Whatever is the reason, the trend has been that they have to put in extra hours and we don’t want that to become a norm. We want to point out the employees who have been sacked for performance issues. You have an employee, who doesn’t get enough rest or sleep or recreation, in such cases, the performance will definitely some down”. X