Call centres unhappy with 'old' law

NEW DELHI: Gurgaon call centres may have tough days ahead if the labour department has its way. Grappling with an old law, which is being used to "harass" call centres, the affected BPOs are asking why this outdated law is being invoked now and are wondering if this is plain harassment under the garb of bureaucratic compliance.
The labour department babus get their clout from Section 9 of the 1958 Act, under which government has been empowered to fix opening and closing hours of "all classes of establishments" and which states that "different opening and closing hours may be fixed for different classes of establishments and for different area."
It was the same labour department which, through its notification issued in June 2000, granted exemptions to "the establishments of information technology and software in the state of Haryana, from the operation of the provisions of sections 9 and 10 of the said Act."
However, labour department officials say that since a call centre is an ITES company and not an IT company, these exemptions don't apply to them.