The Code on Wages (2019), the Industrial Relations Code (2020), the Social Security Code (2020) and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (2020) collectively dilute workers’ rights relating to job security, said Dr Udit Raj
NEW DELHI — The Unorganised Workers and Employees Congress (UWEC) on Friday urged the Prime Minister’s Office to immediately scrap the four Labour Codes, calling them “inherently anti-worker” and a serious setback to decades of hard-won labour protections.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, UWEC chairman Dr Udit Raj said the Code on Wages (2019), the Industrial Relations Code (2020), the Social Security Code (2020) and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (2020) collectively dilute workers’ rights relating to job security, wage protection, workplace safety and social security. This, he said, affects crores of workers, the vast majority of whom belong to the unorganised sector.
Dr Raj said that more than 90 per cent of India’s workforce now faces weakened safeguards, with the Codes “compromising dignity, safety and long-term livelihood stability.” He criticised the “legalisation of hire and fire,” pointing to the increase in the threshold for mandatory government permission for layoffs and retrenchment from 100 to 300 workers. The dilution of Standing Orders, he added, has further eroded statutory protections for service conditions, misconduct procedures and grievance redressal.
He warned that the expansion of Fixed-Term Employment (FTE) is undermining prospects for secure, long-term jobs, especially for young workers. Meanwhile, gig and platform workers, he said, have been offered only “token recognition” through registration and ID cards, without enforceable guarantees under ESIC, EPFO, gratuity, maternity benefits or insurance. He also flagged the shrinking role of existing sectoral Welfare Boards, arguing that this threatens the continuity of essential welfare schemes.
The UWEC demanded the establishment of a single, robust Welfare Board for all unorganised workers to ensure transparent, uniform and accountable social protection mechanisms.
Calling the four Labour Codes “corporate-centric” and “destructive to constitutional labour rights,” Dr Raj appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene and repeal the laws, warning that they fail to provide uniform protections and instead “push India’s workers back into insecurity and vulnerability.”
