Trade unions protest labour codes, accuse govt of repression

Gurgaon: Trade unions — representing industrial workers, municipal staff and sanitation employees — staged a demonstration outside the district commissioner’s office on Wednesday.Warning of intensifying their agitation, the protesters — on their 'Demand Day' — decried “growing police repression” of labour movements across the country and pressed for withdrawal of the four labour codes and acceptance of long-pending demands of workers in Haryana.The four codes — the Code on Wages, 2019; Industrial Relations Code, 2020; Code on Social Security, 2020; and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 — came into force on Nov 21, 2025.Throughout the dharna, workers, employees and union leaders from various central trade unions and associations — under the banner of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) — raised slogans against the Centre and state govts' “anti-labour” policies and burned copies of the four labour codes, calling them a direct assault on hard-won labour rights.State secretary of AITUC Anil Pawar alleged that the new labour codes would dismantle job security, expand contract labour, increase working hours and restrict the rights to unionise and protest, while giving “unrestricted freedom” to employers. “The govts are responding to labour unrest with suppression instead of solutions. See the cases registered against protesting workers and union leaders in several states,” Pawar said.District secretary and state vice-president of All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) Sarwan Kumar, state vice-president of Centre of Indian Trade Unions Satbir Singh, Mukesh Sharma of Indian National Trade Union Congress and Jaspal Rana of Hind Mazdoor Sabha expressed solidarity with striking sanitation workers, municipal employees and fire department staff in Haryana.“These workers have been agitating for permanent jobs, equal pay for equal work, scrapping of contractual employment, regular recruitment and social security, but instead of resolving their issues, authorities are trying to crush the agitation,” Satbir said. “If the anti-worker policies and repressive measures continue, the labour movement would be intensified in the coming days,” Mukesh said.