The Union Government of India, which was already holding high-level-meetings to assess the possibility of implementing the labour codes from April 1, 2025, is now reassessing the ground level situation to know if the labour codes still be possible to implement from the beginning of the financial year 2025-26.

The declaration adopted by the National Convention of Workers held on March 18, 2025 in New Delhi says that the PM Narendra Modi led Centre has become furiously over-active in implementing the Labour Codes. These codes would snatch from them almost all rights and entitlements of workers at their workplaces. The CTUs/Federations take it as a serious challenge to all the basic rights of the workers relating to defined working conditions including working hours, minimum wages, social security etc, and also their collective rights to unionization, recognition, collective bargaining, agitations/struggles and any form of collective expressions of protests including right to strike etc being sought to be snatched away, together with atrocious and vindictive punitive measures against any collective dissents by the workers. In essence the Labour Codes are a blue-print to impose conditions of virtual slavery on the working people in the interests of the corporate/employers’ class.

The declaration reads “After managing to come back to power at the centre for the third term through coalition arrangement the Government has become atrociously desperate to push through its corporate servile policy machinations on the lives and livelihood of the overwhelming majority of toiling populace. This is resulting in continuing phenomenon of deepening and widening impoverishment, spread of hunger and malnutrition below destitution level, skyrocketing unemployment and joblessness together with drastic degeneration of quality of jobs to inhumane level and what-not.

Simultaneously, the profit by the corporate and big-business got multiplied to all time high, the declaration says. Quoting the latest official Economic Survey, it says that the wages of the informal economy workers have fallen in 2023-2024 from the level of those in the year 2017-2018. On the contrary the employment-increase was only 1.5percent. Casual male workers were drawing earnings between Rs.203 to Rs.242 daily whereas women were getting betweenRs.128 to Rs.159. The very same survey report also reflects that the profits of corporate sector grew by 22.3 percent.

As for inequality is concerned, the declaration says, “Inequalities are rising in our country. 5 percent top population owns 70 percent of wealth whereas for the 50 percent people from the bottom, their share in wealth is 3 percent only. Richest Indians are richer than those of the European billionaires whereas poorest Indians are poorer than Madagascar with poverty having increased by 17 percent during more than ten years of present ruling regime. 90 percent families were termed poorer than international standards in2018 as per international studies conducted by reputed institutions.”

The National Convention noted that the decision of implementing Labour Codes is integral to the ongoing project of the corporate class to drastically curb the basic democratic and constitutional rights of the common people including the rights to freedom of expression and assertion of dissent including collective dissent through numerous enactments like UAPA, PMLA including the latest edition of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).The numerous administrative and executive measures aimed at rabidly authoritarianise almost all forms of governance with a fascistic intent are being taken. These are aimed at bulldozing all democratic and collective opposition to the pro-corporate, policies against national interest.

The declaration said that the collective action, even collective lodging of complaints by the workers and their unions are being sought to be interpreted as “organized crime” as per section 111 of BNS leading to harsh police action including non-bailable imprisonment of the workers and their union leaders. Already such events of criminal actions against workers and union leaders for collectively representing their grievance either to management or even to Labour Department have started taking place in many states implicating trade union leaders and activists in numerous cases.

In order to pursue struggle to realise these demands, the implementation of Labour Codes must be stalled and decisively defeated through countrywide united struggles of defiance and resistance by the working class both at national level united actions and also through united sectoral resistance. It is a life and death question for the working-class movement as well as for defending the constitutional and democratic structure of country’s governance.

The Workers campaign prepared by the 10 Central Trade Unions – INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC – and the Independent National Sectoral Federations and Associations included organizing state, district, and sectoral conventions until mid-April 2025.

Protest actions as resistance and defiance, would be organised the very next day once the labour codes implementation announced, and thereafter extensive campaign would be organised until the general strike on May 20, 2025.

During April and May 2025, march on foot, cycle and motor vehicle would be organised across the country. Numerous protest demonstrations have also been planned including at workshops, apart national, states, district and local levels.

Most of the states have already framed rules under the four labour codes, but the differences in many Central and state rules persist. With the differences, smooth rolling out of the labour code at one go is an impossibility. Workers agitation against rolling out of labour codes has now compelled the Centre to reassess its current strategy, though it has already notified some of the provisions of the labour codes. Coming two months is therefore crucial for Industrial relations in the country. (IPA Service)