The general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Tapan Kumar Sen has written to Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, urging him to not give his assent to the amendment to the Factories act passed by the Karnataka Assembly.
The new amendments, if passed, would render changes to six sections of the Factories Act 1948 and drastically change life inside and outside the factories.
As per the amendments, the maximum working hours have been revised to 12 hours per day and up to 48 hours per week and workers can be made to work for up to 6 hours without a break.
The new amendments will also allow women to work in factories between 7 pm and 6 am which was prohibited under the original law.
The letter from Sen contains various reasons for the bill to not pass. For one, it argues that a travel time of 1-2 hours per day has come about as a result of the trend of shifting factories to the city’s outskirts. Coupled with sifts of 12 hours a day, workers will be outside their homes for up to 16 hours per day. It also states that women will be discouraged from joining the factories due to the late night shifts.
During the pandemic, the State Government of Karnataka had tried to raise the working hours to 10 hours per day and 60 hours per week, a move which was opposed by workers and unions.
Meenakshi Sundaram, General Secretary, CITU Karnataka, says that all trade unions have agreed to go on a protest on March 23.
“The new amendments will give more flexibility to owners. They can run the factory for 24 hours (in two shifts) for four days and shut it down for three days. They will save on overtime payments and reduce costs while extracting more work from the labour force. These amendments will hurt workers, and that is why we will protest. All trade unions will participate. Even BMS leaders have signalled their interest in joining the protest” she said.
While the bill has passed both houses of the Karnataka Assembly, it is awaiting the governor’s assent.
