Labour Codes trigger showdown, Unions call ‘combative resistance’ on Nov 26
New Delhi, November 21: A joint platform of 10 central trade unions and several independent industrial federations on Friday announced nationwide “combative resistance and defiance” on November 26, 2025, against the Centre’s immediate rollout of all four labour codes.
In a sharp statement, the Joint Platform accused the government of “blatantly unilateral implementation of anti-worker, pro-employer labour codes” and demanded a complete rollback of the new regime.
The protest call coincided with the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) welcoming the implementation of the Code on Wages (2019), Industrial Relations Code (2020), Code on Social Security (2020) and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (2020), saying the reforms would ensure “dignity, protection and progressive welfare for India’s workforce.”
However, after a meeting with Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the BMS issued a nuanced statement, strongly opposing “certain anti-worker provisions” in the Industrial Relations Code and OSH&WC Code, while endorsing the other two. The delegation included CK Saji Narayanan, S Mallesham, B Surendran, Girish Arya, Ramnath Ganeshe and Pawan Kumar.
The Joint Platform urged workers across sectors to join the November 26 mobilisation alongside farmers affiliated with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), seeking scrapping of all four codes and withdrawal of the draft Shram Shakti Niti 2025.
Calling for immediate workplace actions, unions asked members to wear black badges, hold gate meetings and conduct street-corner gatherings “on a war footing” to “expose the designs of the Union government trying to enslave the wealth producers to profit mongers.”
They said workers have staged multiple nationwide protests since the codes were enacted in 2020, including the general strike of November 26, 2020, held alongside the SKM’s Delhi Chalo movement, and the July 9, 2025 strike, which they claimed drew over 25 crore participants.
Despite this “stiff resistance,” the statement said, the government — “emboldened by its victory in the Bihar elections” — went ahead with enforcing the codes, while ignoring demands to convene the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), which has not met since 2015.
Wide consultations
Labour Ministry officials said the codes would be implemented first, with amendments to follow if required. They emphasised extensive consultations: 27 meetings with states since 2020; 41 with trade unions between 2015 and 2025; 19 with employer associations since 2022; and seven parliamentary committee discussions between 2017 and 2020. Many opposition-ruled states have also implemented the codes, “why didn’t unions launch agitation there,” sources wondered.
Signed by leaders of INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC, the joint statement warned that India’s workers would mount a “formidable fight” until the labour codes are withdrawn.
Published on November 21, 2025
