Rising rupee: IT, BPO employees may have to work longer

The appreciation of the Indian rupee against some currencies, especially the US dollar, has come as good news for many, but for those in the BPO and IT sector, it is means no more Saturday night partying.

Several IT and BPO firms in Bangalore have decided that their employees will have to work on Saturdays too in order to counter the negative impact of the appreciating rupee.

While IT firms are toying with the idea of working on Saturdays, those working in the business process outsourcing sector may have to put in an hour extra everyday at work.

The BPO firms work all seven days of the week. On an average, BPO employees put in 40 hours every week. However, now with revised working hours, an employee would have to put in 50 hours a week.

Whether the employees would start the shift early or end late has not yet been decided.

BPO employees are, however, not happy with the idea and say that this will only add to work pressure. They argue that this move is unfair as they were not allowed to relax when the rupee was not so strong.

Says Santhosh Sharma, a BPO employee, "It seems as though we would have to put in extra working hours at the end of the shift as starting early will make no sense."

The IT and BPO sector, however, says that this is inevitable and employees will have no choice to put in extra working hours. Infosys Technologies' [Get Quote] chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said that the currency changes are beyond the control of the IT industry and the industry has to look at ways to increase productivity.

A source said that most IT and BPO firms are in discussion with their clients to rework billing rates. This would have to be reworked to accommodate every extra hour put in by the service provider.

Sharat Kapadia, an IT consultant, said that currently there are five working days for the employees in the IT sector. However, now that could change. Employees may have to work at least 10 hours on weekdays and six hours on Saturdays.

The employees will surely be paid extra, he added.