Left parties, VCK criticise Centre’s new Labour codes, call for mass protests on Dec 8

Chennai: Four major Left and progressive parties, the CPM, CPI, VCK and CPI(ML) Liberation, have strongly condemned the Union government’s new labour codes, describing them as a sweeping assault on workers’ rights and a serious blow to India’s labour movement.

In a joint statement released on Sunday, CPM state secretary P. Shanmugam, CPI state secretary M. Veerapandian, VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan and CPI(ML) Liberation state secretary Pazha Asaithambi urged workers, trade unions and the wider public to participate in statewide protests on December 8, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the codes.

The parties said the Centre had replaced 29 long-standing labour laws with four consolidated codes, on Wages, Industrial Relations, Occupational Safety and Social Security, a move they characterised as a corporate-friendly reform aligned with the Hindutva agenda.

They warned that the new structure would dismantle labour protections won through more than a century of struggles and severely weaken wage security, job stability and welfare provisions.

They accused the Centre of pushing the labour codes through during the Covid-19 lockdown, calling it an undemocratic attempt to favour corporate interests at a time of widespread hardship.

The new norms, they argued, granted employers sweeping powers. Increasing the threshold for prior government approval to shut establishments from 100 workers to 300 would deprive a majority of workers of basic legal protection.

The redefinition of worker categories would further dilute existing safeguards, they said, dismissing the Centre’s claim that unorganised workers would benefit as “baseless”.

The statement warned that fixed-term employment provisions would accelerate the replacement of permanent jobs with insecure, temporary contracts.

Weak social security measures and reduced regulatory oversight, they said, would deepen exploitation in both the organised and unorganised sectors.

Trade union rights, including the right to organise and strike, were also under direct threat.

Arguing that the government’s emphasis on “investor confidence” only served corporate profit, the parties cited the steep rise in the number of dollar billionaires from 70 in 2014 to 358 in 2025, even as unemployment surged.

With nearly 11 crore migrant workers undertaking long journeys in search of work each year, they said rising inequality was undeniable.

They also noted that Tamil Nadu, Kerala and several other non-BJP-ruled states had not framed rules for the labour codes, accusing the Centre of ignoring states’ objections and undermining federal principles.

Urging widespread participation, the Left parties and VCK called on workers and the public to join district-level demonstrations on December 8 to defend labour rights and oppose what they termed an “anti-worker, pro-corporate” overhaul of India’s labour laws.

IANS