Version imprimableALL INDIA TRADE UNION CONGRESS (AITUC)
Press Release
The following statement was issued today 09th October 2025 by Ms Amarjeet Kaur General Secretary AITUC
- AITUC rejects the draft labour policy named as ‘’Shram Shakti Niti 2025’’
- Demands immediate convening of Indian Labour Conference
AITUC rejects the draft labour policy released on 8th October 2025 for very valid reasons. This draft policy named as, “Shram Shakti Niti 2025” has been unveiled as a unilateral diktat of the BJP government. This comes in a blatant violation to the established tripartite process. This deeply alarming and anti-democratic move has left the workers and the Trade Unions in a sense of shock and betrayal. AITUC urges upon the MOLE to immediately withdraw the draft and initiate discussions with the CTUs before finalising it for public opinion.
A labour policy means the government’s comprehensive framework to regulate the workplace and manage the country’s employment landscape ensuring labour rights and protection. Discussing with the Central Trade Unions as the main stake-holders before drafting such a policy is a standard and crucial practice established in India. Only such a practice ensures legitimacy and effectiveness to the draft policy. Consulting with trade unions is neither an option nor a formality; it is a cornerstone of sound labour policy.
We condemn the increasingly high-handed manner of MOLE in releasing the draft labour policy bypassing the essential dialogue with the trade unions.
A national labour policy sets out a government’s strategy for its workforce. It should include job protection, employment generation, social security including maternity benefit, hours of work, safety, skilling etc. The labour policy should uphold international labour standards and constitutional commitments. But the draft labour policy lacks credibility and rings hollow. Seen in the background of BJP’s pro-corporate and anti-worker policies, the draft policy comes across as an insincere document seeking to legitimise its anti-worker stance.
A cursory and quick glance of the draft policy reveals its blatant hollowness. The policy is intended to compliment the Labour Codes that are vehemently opposed by the Central Trade Unions. The policy does not address the most contentious issue of job security, employment generation and mandatory minimum wages as per the Minimum Wages Act. In the absence of policy on Artificial Intelligence and Just Transition and in the background of incomplete and dubious data architecture the claims made in the draft are simply an eye-wash.
AITUC vociferously challenges the false narrative of universal social security built by the MOLE. The welfare schemes do not constitute social security. Every worker including the unorganised sector workers, daily wage workers, gig, casual, contract, agricultural, home based, domestic et al, should be provided with minimum wages and social security as legal entitlements and ensured by strict inspections. Any policy short of this shall not be accepted.
AITUC once again reiterates its rejection of this draft policy and calls upon the MOLE to withdraw the draft and initiate dialogue with the CTUs by long overdue Indian Labour Conference (ILC).
Amarjeet Kaur
General Secretary, AITUC
