Bengaluru, Karnataka:

Karnataka’s IT-BT Minister Priyank Kharge said on Monday that he is not aware of what the IT firms have proposed with regard to extending employee working hours from 12 hours to 14 hours.

The minister said that there is a draft bill brought by the Labour department and more discussion will take place on it before it is approved.

“I am not sure what proposal ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services companies) have given but there was a bill that was brought in by Labour Department. We will look at it. There is a misconception about the bill. We will have a discussion and we will be more than happy to brief media about that,” Priyank Kharge told ANI.

His reaction came after the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees’ Union (KITU) expressed reservations about the Karnataka government’s reported move to allow the IT firms to increase the working hours of their employees from 12 hours to 14 hours. They said that 14-hour work day is an ‘attack on basic rights of a worker.’

There have been reports that IT firms have put forward a proposal to the state government to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act in order to allow for a legal extension of work hours to 14 hours, or 12 hours plus two hours of overtime.

Recently, the Karnataka government had to put on hold a draft bill that mandated reservation for local candidates in private companies. The bill mandated 50 percent reservation in the management posts and 70 percent reservation in non-management posts for the local candidates.

The bill faced widespread criticism from investors and trade bodies. As criticism grew on the bill, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the bill had been put on hold and that wider consultation would take place on it.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)