‘If India strictly implements overtime pay...’: IIT professor shares a word of caution amid 90-hour workweek row

Nirmalya Kajuri, Assistant Professor of Physics at IIT Mandi, has a word of advice for 70-hour and 90-hour workweek advocates. In a post on X (formally Twitter), Kajuri wrote, “If India strictly implements overtime pay for 40+ hours of work per week, all the corporate bosses who are now advocating that employees work 70-90 hours a week will become the biggest champions of work-life balance.” 

The IIT professor’s viewpoint gains significance amid a heated debate of working on Sundays as suggested by L&T chairman for ‘nation building’. 

Kajuri’s remark immediately caught attention of many with one user suggesting that rule applies to jobs with a minimum wage and fixed hours if I'm not wrong. That criteria wouldn't apply to most of the jobs we have in India. “We all have monthly salaries. I have not seen anyone getting paid by the hour,” the user added. 

In his reply, Kajuri said, “You are wrong. In US, Europe, China etc you get overtime pay for 40+ hours of work in any line. In India also, there is provision of overtime pay(typically for 48+ hours) for white collar employees under the Shops and Establishment act. But this law varies from state to state and is not implemented well.” 

So if an employer is making you work more than 48+ hours, they are most likely violating the law, he added. 

The debate over work-life balance has intensified ever since Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman SN Subrahmanyan's take on the same went viral on social media. In an undated video, Subrahmanyan can be heard saying that employees should work 90 hours a week.  

During an employee interaction, the L&T chairman was asked why employees still had to work on Saturday. To this, he quipped that he regrets not being able to make them work on Sundays as well. 

Needless to say, his remarks left India Inc outraged. From Anand Mahindra, Rajiv Bajaj to Harsh Mariwala and Anupam Mittal, industry titans shared their takes on Subrahmanyan's remarks with most saying the idea is not feasible and called for a balanced approach to quality of work rather than time spent in work. 

Unfortunately, Subrahmanyan is not the first industry leader to propose extended work hours in India, where a 48-hour work week is a norm and any additional hours are classified as overtime as per the country's labour regulations. Earlier, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy had suggested a 70-hour work week for Indians.  

Tesla CEO Elon Musk promoted the idea of long working hours and eliminated remote work across all his companies last year. According to Musk, putting in 80 to 100-hour weeks consistently can increase the chances of success. 

Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba, expressed support for China's "996" work schedule, which consists of working from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week. In 2019, Ma referred to this schedule as a "tremendous opportunity," suggesting that individuals who are passionate about their careers view the ability to work extended hours as a privilege.