The laws pave the way for 12-hour workdays, make the right to form unions and the right to strike almost impossible, says All India Kisan Sabha
NEW DELHI — The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has sharply criticised the Centre’s four new Labour Codes, calling them “regressive legislations” that strip workers of hard-won rights and push India back toward “the dark period of British colonial rule.”
In a strong statement issued on Saturday by AIKS president Ashok Dhawale and general secretary Vijoo Krishnan, the farmers’ organisation rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that the codes are “progressive, labour-oriented reforms.” Instead, AIKS said the laws pave the way for 12-hour workdays, make the right to form unions and the right to strike almost impossible, and introduce policies that “chain workers to profit-hungry corporates.”
AIKS warned that provisions such as fixed-term employment and the rise of “hire and fire” norms will destroy permanent jobs and jeopardise the future of millions of young people. The Industrial Relations Code, which raises the threshold for government permission for layoffs and closures from 100 to 300 workers, will allow most industries to fire employees without compensation or retirement benefits, the statement said.
“These codes backstab the youths’ dream of secure, permanent employment and will deepen the agrarian crisis by worsening unemployment,” AIKS said, adding that the government has sided with corporate interests at the cost of labour rights. It also criticised the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) for supporting the codes.
The farmers’ body welcomed the growing dissent among trade unions and called for nationwide resistance. It urged farmers and agricultural labourers to burn copies of the Labour Codes in villages as a symbol of protest and to mobilise rural communities against what it described as the government’s “double talk” on workers’ welfare.
AIKS also appealed to people across the country to join state- and district-level demonstrations on 26 November, called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and Central Trade Unions, warning the government that the workers “will not allow their enslavement.”
