At the call of the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Sectoral Federations and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, massive protests took place all over the country against the four labour codes and the anti-farmer policies of the central government in the formal and informal sectors, in government, public sector enterprises, and industrial areas, in rural India and also at block-sub-division levels by informal sector workers, agricultural labour and farmers and other sections of common people. Participation of students and youth was quite visible in many states.
The workers and farmers, the two productive forces of the country, are strengthening their solidarity support to each other as well as developing united actions. The 9th July 2025 nationwide general strike called by the platform of ten central trade unions, independent sectoral federations and associations and the mobilisation by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and agricultural workers ‘ organisations had further strengthened this bond in the interest of the working masses and the nation at large.
The protesters expressed themselves against the rising inequalities in the face of unprecedented price rise of essential commodities, rising unemployment and underemployment, leading to desperation, increased suicides of casual labour and unemployed youth.
The government has not been conducting the Indian labour conference for the last 10 years, violating international labour standards and continuing to take decisions against the interest of the labour force. On November 21, 2025, the four labour codes were notified abruptly to favour employers in the name of 'ease of doing business'.
The trade unions consider these labour codes as a negation of labour rights won over after 150 years of struggle starting under the British Raj. These codes negate our right to strike, make union registration problematic, derecognition of unions easy, the process of conciliation and adjudication cumbersome, wind up labour courts, introduce tribunals for workers, and give overriding power to registrars to de-register unions. The definition of wage has been changed and the schedule of occupations for minimum wages applicability abolished. The Code on Occupational Safety and Working Conditions is designed to put the right to safety of every worker and the rights and entitlements of workers in the workplace in total jeopardy, the inspections have been done away with and replaced with facilitators to facilitate employers. The changes in the Code on Industrial Relations and its rules for increasing the threshold of applicability from 100 to 300 would push out 70 percent of industries out of the coverage of labour laws. The threshold changes in the factory act from 10 to 20 workers where power is used and 20 to 40 workers without power would also throw out a substantial number of workers from the coverage of the labour laws, giving the employers wide discretionary powers to repress and exploit.
There is no labour protection in fixed term employment as it is fully devoid of labour law protection. Unlimited apprenticeship and no compulsion of absorption is another way of exploiting workers. While violations by employers are being decriminalised, criminalisation of trade union leaders is on the cards. The Jan Vishwas Bill replaces criminal 'fines' with civil 'penalties', shifting 288 provisions from criminal prosecution to administrative enforcement. Violations become 'contraventions' instead of 'offences', stripping away imprisonment clauses and criminal sanctions.
The new system will introduce 'improvement notices' for offenders in almost 76 offences under 10 Acts. This replaces immediate fines and initiation of criminal proceedings. The judicial proceedings will be done away with and the designated officer will adjudicate the penalties. The labour courts are to be wound up and replaced by a tribunal system. Interventions in certain matters, so far available at the High Court level, will also be taken away.
The threshold for requiring a licence for contractors has been raised from 20 workers to 50. Outsourcing and contractorisation have been made normal. No recruitment is being done against sanctioned posts. Instead, there is a ban on creation of new posts leading to rising unemployment and trend of appointing retirees instead of regular employment of unemployed youth etc.
The unions are asking for immediate recruitment against the sanctioned posts lying vacant in all government departments and PSUs, creation of more jobs in industries and services, increase in days and remuneration of MGNREGA workers and enactment of similar legislation for urban areas. But the government is busy imposing the Employment Linked Incentive scheme to incentivise employers in order to subsidise their labour costs and informalise the workforce. In government departments and in the public sector, instead of providing regular appointments for the youth, the policy of recruiting retirees on the one hand and appointing fixed–term/apprentices/trainees/interns in the core jobs on the other, is being introduced. This is witnessed in the railways, NMDC Ltd, in the steel sector, in teaching cadres etc. This is damaging to the growth of the country in which 65 percent of the population is below the age of 35 and the numbers of unemployed is highest in the age group of 20 to 25 years.
The government has made fraudulent claims on employment and provisions of social security. In the Code on Social Security the existing social security schemes have been dumped.
The politics of polarisation and communal hatred is being used by the ruling dispensation to stay in power, endangering the very basis of the Indian constitution, secular democracy, respect for diverse cultures, beliefs and languages, freedom of expression and dissent as the core values. The working people, the common masses, must reject the politics of hatred and take forward the struggles on their day-to-day life issues, affordable education, health, shelter, clean drinking water, sanitation, employment, decent wages, social security, pensionary benefits, old age security etc.
They should strengthen the movements to stop corporate loot and save the public sector, public services, jal-jungle-jameen, as national assets for the good of the people and the nation.
National and state leaders also addressed a protest in Delhi organised at Jantar Mantar by the trade unions and kisan organisations.
The central trade unions and Samyukt Kisan Morcha have strongly protested the cowardly attack by BJP goons on the worker-farmer demonstration in Dharmanagar North Tripura District. CITU State Vice President Amitava Datta and AIKS State Executive member Ratan Roy and seven other activists were attacked. The CTUs and the SKM demand that the Chief Minister Manik Saha take immediate action against the criminals and warn the BJP that no violence on peaceful democratic mass protests will be tolerated.
The CTUs and the SKM have congratulated lakhs of activists who have made the protest successful across the country. It is a strong warning to the anti-worker, anti-farmer Modi government and if there is no immediate action on the burning demands, there will be more massive, determined pan-India protests in the near future.
Copies of the Labour Codes notification were burnt by workers and farmers across the country as part of nationwide protest demonstrations
