My boss wants projects to be delivered 'quicker', he is a workaholic and expects everyone else to follow suit. By that, he means telling my colleague who is working out in India to work longer hours i.e. instead of working an 8 hour day, working 10 hours a day. His logic is 'he has a 4 hours time difference, you should tell him to start working at 7am' not taking into account that his contracted hours are 8 hours a day.

I am the project manager at the firm, and he is a full time employee who reports to me. I have a set way of doing things, but my boss likes to meddle.

Frankly, I feel really uncomfortable telling him to do this, since I feel as though I am taking advantage of him which could end up burning him out. At the same time, I feel like I am in a situation where if I don't listen to my boss he will end up giving me a hard time for not listening to him. I have told him in the past that I have felt uncomfortable doing that, my boss's response has always been 'He is earning good money from us; I don't care'.

What is the best way to handle this situation? Is it ethical to ask this colleague to work more hours than we pay him for?