On June 10 the Karnataka government once again granted exemption to IT and ITES companies from the Industrial Standing Orders Act 1946, for another five years. The Act gives protection to workers against arbitrary layoffs, extended working hours, sexual harassment, etc., and provides mechanisms for grievance redressal.
According to the general secretary of the Karnataka IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), the IT industry in Karnataka has been exempted from the Standing Orders Act for the past 25 years or more, in the name of ‘ease of doing business’. IT workers organised a protest march to the labour office earlier this year, to highlight their difficult working conditions and to demand that the IT companies not be granted exemption from the labour laws. But their demand has remained unheard.
Karnataka is a major hub of India’s booming IT industry. There are more than 20 lakh workers working in nearly 8,785 IT and BT (bio technology) companies in Karnataka. These workers have raised their concerns with the government, time and again, about their extremely exploitative conditions of work. They have pointed out that exemption from the Industrial Standing Orders Act enables the capitalist owners of the IT companies to blatantly violate the rights of the workers and get away scot-free. Although the government had promised that it would re-consider the exemption, it has once again shown that it openly defends the interests of the capitalist owners. It has once again granted the capitalist owners complete immunity from any prosecution, for violating the rights of the workers.
The IT companies have a terrible track record of exploiting workers. Fresh recruits are forced to deposit all their original qualification certificates with the human resources department of the company for a lock-in period of two to three years depending on their contracts. The company imposes huge penalties on the worker if she/he wishes to discontinue the job. The workers are virtual bonded labourers.
Hiring workers on contract is rampant in the IT companies. Workers are hired on contract at various levels, without a statutory license or registering under the Contract Labour Abolition (Regulation) Act 1970. Contract workers have no security of employment, no right to protest against their conditions of work and no rights to any health benefits or social security.
IT companies are notorious for arbitrary layoff of workers. Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, IT firms, big and small, have laid off employees en masse. Under the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, any establishment employing a hundred or more workers is required to obtain written permission of the government before laying off or retrenching workers. However, the IT companies have been exempted from the Standing Orders and so they are free to layoff workers. The freedom to hire and fire arbitrarily has been one of the main demands of the capitalists, in the name of ‘ease of doing business’.
A leading capitalist of the IT industry in India recently called upon the youth to work 70 hours a week. 12-14 hour working days are the norm in the IT industry, which get stretched further, with workers complaining of incessant phone calls and work emails even when they are off-duty.
The struggle of the IT workers against these slave-like working conditions is completely just.