Social and Psychological Cost of Karnataka’s 12-Hour Workday Proposal

Prolonged Work Hours Risk Harming Health, Families and Worker Wellbeing

June 20, 2025

The Karnataka government's proposal to extend the daily working hours from 10 to 12 and increase overtime allowances from 50 to 144 hours over three months runs counter to both the spirit and the scientific rationale of labour law. Such an amendment disregards decades of evidence about the physical, mental and social toll of prolonged work hours.

Labour laws across the world were created to prevent exploitation and exhaustion, and to make sure that work leaves enough time for rest, family and personal life. The eight-hour workday, first legislated in the early 20th century, was the outcome of workers’ movements grounded in the idea of “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what we will.”

The famous slogan is credited to Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, whose idea of work-life balance saw how factory workers in the Industrial Revolution were burnt out, falling sick, dying early and unable to raise their children. The eventual adoption of such a model in various parts of the world, including India, followed years of protests, strikes and empirical learning about human endurance.

Today, that understanding is supported by substantial research in neuroscience and occupational health. Long working hours are linked with increased risk of depression, anxiety, cardiovascular diseases, sleep disorders and even early death.

A 2021 joint study by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization found that people who work 55 hours or more per week face a 35 percent higher risk of stroke and a 17 percent higher risk of developing ischaemic heart disease, compared to those who work 35 to 40 hours a week. The study analysed attributed about 745,000 deaths in 2016 alone to long working hours. These included around 398,000 deaths from stroke and 347,000 from heart disease.

Japan, which has long battled a culture of overwork, has its own word for this phenomenon: karoshi, meaning death from overwork. The term entered public discourse in the 1970s after a series of sudden deaths, including among young professionals, brought attention to the consequences of extreme work pressure. Cases of karoshi often involve heart attacks, strokes or suicides triggered by stress and exhaustion, and they continue to occur despite policy efforts to control excessive work hours.

South Korea used to allow working up to 68 hours per week, including regular hours and overtime. In 2018, after years of public concern over families under strain and widespread burnout, the government passed a law capping the workweek at 52 hours (40 regular plus 12 overtime).

France introduced the Law on the Right to Disconnect (Loi sur le droit à la déconnexion) in 2017, requiring companies with more than 50 employees to negotiate with staff and unions to establish clear boundaries on after-hours digital communication. The aim was to protect workers from the expectation of being constantly available, especially through emails and messaging apps. It came in response to growing concerns over burnout, a which is recognised in France as a public health issue linked to digital overexposure. While the law does not ban after-hours emails outright, it obliges employers to define rules around it.

Even China, known for its rigid productivity culture, has begun rethinking its infamous 996 schedule, which expected workers to be at work from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. The backlash followed a string of young tech workers collapsing on the job.

Within India, the Tamil Nadu government in 2023 attempted a similar change, permitting 12-hour shifts in factories. After workers and unions opposed it citing health and safety concerns, and after widespread protests and criticism, the government dropped the proposal.

Supporters of the Karnataka proposal have framed it as a measure to attract investment and promote flexibility. But the assumption that longer hours lead to better output is flawed.

A study from Stanford University by economist John Pencavel found that after a certain number of hours, working longer actually leads to lower output. He studied data from factory workers and saw that people working 60 hours a week were often producing less per hour than those working 40. This happened because fatigue reduced focus and increased mistakes. The more hours people worked beyond that point, the less useful those hours became.

Other research from Stanford also shows that after 50 hours a week, productivity starts to fall. Once people cross 55 hours, their extra time adds almost no value. The work becomes slower, more error-prone and less effective.

The Karnataka proposal also overlooks how longer work hours and extended shifts affect women. In Andhra Pradesh, where a similar change was announced on June 7, the Information and Public Relations Minister said that allowing women to work night shifts with safeguards would help them join the formal workforce, according to The Economic Times. The argument assumed that simply allowing access is enough, without considering the pressures women already face at home. In most families, women handle the bulk of unpaid care work. Longer shifts, especially at night, make this even harder.

From a psychological standpoint, work is only one part of human life. People need time for sleep, for leisure, for relationships and for self. These are essential conditions for mental stability and happiness. When people are overworked, they lose the ability to pay attention, to care, to stay calm. It leads to irritability, lower self-esteem, and in the long run, a sense of pointlessness. In families, it reduces the time parents spend with their children, which affects child development. In communities, it means less civic engagement, weaker support systems and poorer mental health.

One of the main roles of labour legislation is to protect workers from economic coercion. It recognises that workers often do not have equal bargaining power with their employers. By increasing the legal limit of overtime, Karnataka is effectively legalising pressure tactics. It allows companies to normalise long shifts by simply labelling them as overtime. Workers may have little choice but to accept these terms for fear of losing income or even their job.

The Karnataka government claims to want to improve ease of doing business. But ease for whom? True economic progress must rest on fair and safe working conditions.

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