Work Hours Increased From 9 Hrs To 10 Hrs-

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00:00Dear viewers, Maharashtra has just changed the rules of your work day and it's not in

00:06your favour.

00:07Private sector employees will now have to work 10 hours a day and factory workers can

00:12be pushed to work up to 12 hours a day.

00:15The government is calling this a reform but in reality it is exploitation that has been

00:19made legal.

00:20Corporates will benefit, politicians have protected their own employees and the ordinary worker

00:26is left to carry the burden.

00:28This is not reform, this is hypocrisy.

00:30Hello, I am Tejas and you are watching Honest Take.

00:32Before we move ahead, our usual request.

00:35Please do subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and press the bell icon to never miss

00:38an update.

00:39And if you work in the private sector in Maharashtra, do watch this video till the end.

00:44On September 3rd, 2025, the Maharashtra cabinet made a decision that will reshape the daily

00:49lives of millions of private sector workers and not in a good way.

00:53They quietly approved amendments to two critical labour laws.

00:57The factories act of 1948 and the Maharashtra shops and establishments act of 2017.

01:03In plain English, this means your work day just got longer.

01:07From 9 hours to 10 hours if you are in a private establishment.

01:11And if you are in a factory, you could be staring down 12 hour shifts.

01:15The government calls it reform.

01:17But let's be real.

01:18This is nothing more than exploitation dressed up to look shiny and new.

01:22Now, if you listen to the official line, this is being done to attract investment.

01:27Maharashtra, we are told, needs to compete with Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh,

01:33even Tripura.

01:34All of them have already tweaked labour laws to make themselves business friendly.

01:38That's the pitch.

01:39Investment will come, jobs will increase and workers will benefit.

01:43Sounds neat on paper, doesn't it?

01:45But scratch the surface and what do you find?

01:48This isn't about workers.

01:49This is about industrial lobbies pushing the government to legalize what is already happening

01:54behind the closed doors.

01:55Even the state's own labour minister admitted it.

02:00He said, in many private establishments, people already work more than 9 hours.

02:04But they don't get paid for it.

02:06Instead of cracking down on that exploitation, the government has chosen to make it legal.

02:11Imagine that.

02:12Instead of punishing the rule breakers, they change the rule book.

02:15The real winners are corporations and industrial houses.

02:18They get the same number of employees doing more work for roughly the same cost.

02:23Sure, the government says overtime will now mean double pay.

02:26But here is the trick.

02:28When you increase allowable overtime, companies don't have to hire extra workers.

02:33They just stretch the existing ones thinner.

02:36There is another sweet deal buried inside.

02:38Establishments with fewer than 20 employees are now exempt from registration requirement.

02:44More unregulated workplaces, less accountability and even fewer protections for workers.

02:50There is the part that should make your blood boil.

02:53This law applies only to the private sector.

02:57Government employees?

02:58They are untouched.

02:59Their cushy 9 to 5 lives remain exactly the same.

03:03Fixed hours, increments, pensions, paid holidays, job security, everything intact.

03:07Meanwhile, the private sector worker who pays the highest share of taxes, who shoulders the

03:13pressure of India's growth story is told.

03:15Tighten your belt, give us another hour every single day and be grateful.

03:20A government that calls itself the servant of the people is protecting its own employees

03:25while pushing everyone else into longer, more exhausting days.

03:29If that's not hypocrisy, what else?

03:31The government says longer hours mean higher productivity.

03:35That's laughable.

03:36Every serious study across the world says the opposite.

03:39Productivity peaks at 4 to 5 hours of focused work.

03:42After that, fatigue sets in, errors increase, creativity collapses, stress spikes.

03:48Even Japan and South Korea, which were once infamous for brutal work hours, have now rolled

03:53back.

03:54They have realized too many hours are literally killing their workers.

03:58In India, instead of learning from that, we are racing backwards.

04:01Let's bring this closer to home.

04:03Picture a worker in Mumbai.

04:05She lives in faraway suburbs like Badlapur or Nala Supara.

04:08Her office is in Nariman Point.

04:10Her commute eats 3 hours each way, that is 6 hours gone.

04:14Add 10 hours in the office, that's 16 hours spent in work mode.

04:18You come home, collapse, sleep for 6 hours if you are lucky and repeat.

04:22Where is the time for family, for kids, for your own health?

04:25This is the reality that politicians sitting in air conditioned offices with government cars

04:31and fixed working hours will never understand.

04:34Let's talk about the toll.

04:36Longer hours don't just eat away free time.

04:39They destroy health, burnout, depression, cardiovascular diseases.

04:43Rising cases of suicide linked to overwork.

04:45We already see this in sectors like IT and finance where unofficial 12 hour days are the

04:50north.

04:51Now, instead of protecting people from this toxic culture, the government has decided to force

04:56it on everyone.

04:57When the decision was announced, social media exploded.

05:01Not because people love to complain, but because they already know the truth.

05:05Most private sector employees already work 10-12 hours unofficially.

05:10But now, when it is made official, it means you can't even push back.

05:14If your boss tells you to stay late, you can't argue.

05:18The law has blessed your exploitation.

05:21This decision is not just about working hours.

05:23It exposes a bigger truth about our country.

05:26There are two Indias.

05:27One India, the government employees live in a protected bubble.

05:31They work fewer hours than private sector workers.

05:33They have pensions, holidays, job security, medical benefits.

05:37The other India, the private workers, from IT engineers to shop assistants to factory laborers,

05:43have none of that.

05:44They work longer, pay more taxes and get fewer benefits.

05:48The Maharashtra decision widens this gap.

05:50It tells the private sector, you are expendable.

05:53You are a resource to be squeezed dry.

05:55Is this even fair under the law?

05:57The constitution promises equal protection.

06:00But here we have two sets of rules.

06:02One for government workers, another for everyone else.

06:05If both groups are citizens, taxpayers and voters, why should only one group be punished

06:11with harsher hours?

06:12This isn't just bad policy.

06:14It is discriminatory.

06:15If the real concern was productivity and investment, the government had other options.

06:21Enforce the existing 9 hour limit properly instead of changing the law.

06:25Improve infrastructure so people waste less time in traffic.

06:29Use technology and skill development to make workers more efficient, not more exhausted.

06:34And set the same rules for public and private employees.

06:38If 10 hours is so beneficial, why not start with the mantra layashtra?

06:42Strengthen worker protections instead of diluting them.

06:45But none of that happens.

06:47Why?

06:48Because corporations don't demand it.

06:50Lobbies don't pay for it.

06:51This 10 hour work day decision is not progress.

06:54It is regression.

06:55It is a betrayal of the very people who keep the wheels of Maharashtra turning.

07:00The government has chosen to legalize exploitation instead of stopping it.

07:05It has chosen to protect its own employees while sacrificing private workers.

07:09And it has chosen to sell the dream of investment at the cost of human dignity.

07:15This isn't reform.

07:16This is surrender to industrial lobbies, to corporate greed, and to a broken idea of progress.

07:22And unless people speak up, unless this decision is challenged,

07:26Maharashtra risks turning into a laboratory for modern day bonded labor,

07:31dressed up as global competitiveness.

07:33The working people of this state deserve better, much better.

07:37That's all on today's Honest Take with me Tejas.

07:39Until next time, stay sharp, stay curious, and never stop asking dumb questions.

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