The IT and ITES Employees Centre has criticised the Karnataka Government’s decision to extend the exemption of IT industry from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 for five more years.

The centre said even though the Labour Department and Women’s Commission have detected several cases of unfair practices and sexual harassment in the industry, the State government has failed to pay heed to it. “When the industry boasts of providing world-class working conditions for employees, the attempt to obtain exemption deceives the common sense. The fear of unionization is unfounded for, as ‘Standing Orders’ is in no way related to unionization,” the centre said in a statement.

It pointed out that no redressal mechanism has been worked out in the absence of the “Standing Orders’.

“When the same IT companies are willing to conform to more stringent labour laws in other countries, why should they fear labour laws here?” it asked.

It said exemption should be made under exceptional cases and not as a norm as the IT industry has now been exempted from these labour laws for nearly two decades now.

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