The Karnataka government has withdrawn notification extending the working hours from eight to 10 per day/60 hours per week to all factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948.

The State government told the Karnataka High Court that it has withdrawn the notification.

The Karnataka Employers Association (KEA) had filed a case challenging the State government’s notification as illegal, arbitrary and in violation of Section 5 of the Factories Act.

The government issued a notification on May 22 for extended working hours for three months (till August 21, 2020), claiming it is doing so to help companies boost productivity which has been affected due to lock-down.

The High Court on June 11 had observed that it may have to quash the notification unless the government clarified the public emergency for invoking the notification.

The notification submitted on Friday, signed by Sandhya L Nayak Deputy Secretary Labour Department, said the government of Karnataka now intends to withdraw the notification.

The amendment was in line with other States like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, but even they had to backtrack as the Central government raised objections to the order and directed the States to withdraw it.

The notification had angered trade unions, and nine TUs under the umbrella of Joint Committee of Trade Unions had come out opposing the plan.

The JCTU, which comprises the INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, TUCC, HMKP and GATWU, had alleged that under the pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, employers’ bodies lobbied with the State government to increase the working hours to 12 hours per day ( 72 hours per week). “Employers are also pushing for other anti-worker amendments such as permitting industries with less than 300 workers to announce lay-off, termination and closure without prior permission and exemption for contract labour registration,” it had alleged.

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