Editorial: Labour rights under siege

The draft labour policy released by the government for public consultation will stir the hornet’s nest. Already, some trade unions are up in arms against the draft policy and have demanded its immediate withdrawal. Having witnessed the gradual dilution of their rights, welfare entitlements and collective bargaining power over the years, the trade unions are not buying the government’s spiel about the draft National Labour & Employment Policy - Shram Shakti Niti 2025 that it “presents a renewed vision for a fair, inclusive, and future-ready world of work aligned with the national aspiration of Viksit Bharat @2047”.

The policy seems to draw from “civilisational ethos,” which is articulated in ancient texts such as the Manusmriti and Arthashastra, which many think smacks of the government’s majoritarian politics. When labour (śrama) is posited as “a contribution to the broader order of dharma (righteous duty)” as against the narrow view of work as merely a means of livelihood, the Indic view tends to legitimise and perpetuate the exploitative status quo in the guise of fulfilling one’s dharma. Trying to inject religious ethos into the constitutional and secular governance framework is clearly problematic, if not downright illegal. The Narendra Modi government has been at it and has, of late, been expediting and expanding to new areas, as there has not been adequate pushback from opposition parties and civil society. It is also a misconstruing of the limited mandate it got in the 2024 general elections.

The second major problem is the recurrent complaint that the government does not consult the key stakeholders – in this case, the representatives of workers and trade union leaders. A trade union leader aptly described it as the Labour Ministry’s “increasingly high-handed manner” in bypassing “the essential dialogue” with the trade unions. This is not the first time this government has tried to impose a policy or law without consulting the primary stakeholders. The government’s flawed and even arrogant assumption that it is the ultimate repository of governance wisdom goes against the spirit and ethos of the constitutional system. Moreover, almost every central legislation on subjects in the concurrent list has been controversial, as critics and opponents have often been suspected of ulterior motives to subvert federalism.

The third major problem is that increasingly the government is being seen as less pro-people and broadly more pro-business. The view that it brazenly favours a couple of business conglomerates has gained considerable currency. Its steps to improve “ease of business” have been criticised for weakening the workers’ rights. The recurring complaint against laws enacted by the BJP government is that “reforms” invariably favour businesses, the rich and the powerful, and come at the expense of workers, farmers, citizens, etc. This was evident in the discourse around the four labour codes enacted by the government, but whose date of implementation has not been announced. So much so that even Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), which is a part of the Sangh Parivar, could support only two of the four codes. On the other hand, there is little doubt that the draft labour policy would be welcomed by industry organisations, which have been persistently advocating “simplification” of labour laws to increase “ease” of compliance and “flexibility” to hire and fire workers. The government must seriously prioritise dialogue and persuasion over unilateral sledgehammer tactics against labour.