Chennai: Workers see red as new Labour Codes come into effect

CHENNAI: As the union government brought all four labour codes into force on November 21, trade unions said the move strips away basic protections for workers while creating deep uncertainty for crores in the unorganised sector.

India's new labour architecture consolidates 29 separate central labour laws into four unified labour codes - on wages, industrial relations, social security and occupational safety.

Speaking to the DT Next, A Soundararajan, vice president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said the codes fundamentally alter the way workplaces will be regulated in India. The concern centres on the Industrial Relations (IR) Code's expansion of the standing-order threshold from 100 workers to 300. Standing orders are legally binding service rules that codify working hours, leave, discipline, wage categories and procedures for termination.

"With the threshold raised to 300, companies with fewer than 300 workers will effectively run with no statutory service conditions," he said, adding, "That is at least 75–80 per cent of factories and business units in the country. The idea of these laws is actually removing crores of labourers from the ambit of law."

The union also flagged the working-hours framework under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code. While the Code formally retains the 48-hour week and the 8-hour day, it allows state governments to prescribe working hours through rules. This shifts power from legislative amendment to mere executive orders.

"Yes, they have kept the 48 hours per week, but they have basically given a free go to States on the daily eight-hour shift," Soundararajan noted

Under the old Factories Act, any extension of daily working hours required a State amendment passed in the Assembly and the President's assent. The new Code enables governments to permit longer shifts, including 10 or 12-hour arrangements, through simple notifications, a change unions say weakens long-standing protections around working hours.

Beyond these concerns, trade unions also point to a set of additional structural issues within the Codes. Workers in establishments with fewer than 50 employees remain excluded from lay-off compensation, and stricter strike restrictions now apply across all industrial establishments, requiring 14 days' notice and prohibiting strikes during conciliation or tribunal proceedings.

The much-touted social security for gig and app-based delivery workers also has its concerns. While the Code formally recognises them for the first time and creates a legal framework for future health and social security schemes, the workers find no mention in the other three labour codes, leaving major gaps around job security, working conditions and regulatory oversight.

In a joint press statement, ten central trade unions, including AITUC, CITU, INTUC and LPF, called the notification a "blatantly unilateral" move that ignores repeated demands to convene the Indian Labour Conference, which has not met since 2015. Stating that they have opposed the Codes since their passage in 2019 and 2020, the unions said the new regime "repeals existing 29 central labour legislations and alters the character of the welfare state," and urged workers across sectors to participate in coordinated protests on November 26.