Mazdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Abhiyan (MASA), a coordination of 14 workers’ organisations, unions and federations across the country, has observed All India Workers’ Rights Day with protest demonstrations and rallies in several states, demanding repeal of the four recently implemented Labour Codes and protection of basic workers’ rights.
Programmes were held in major cities and towns including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Patna, Lucknow, Bareilly, Bhubaneswar, Kurukshetra, Ludhiana, Haridwar, Rudrapur, Davangere and Gulbarga, covering states such as Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
In the national capital, over a thousand workers from Delhi and neighbouring regions of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan gathered at Jantar Mantar despite sustained pressure from the police. Participants represented a wide range of sectors, including automobile, garment, electronics, domestic work, MNREGA, construction, MSMEs, gig work and various government schemes, cutting across urban, industrial and rural areas.
The demonstration was jointly organised by MASA constituents in the Delhi NCR region, including MSS, CSTU, IMK, IFTU-S, GMUB and BNASU, and was joined by representatives of several trade union federations, workers’ unions, farmers’ organisations, and student and youth groups.
Addressing the gathering, speakers said that on November 21 the Union government had pushed through the four Labour Codes while ignoring widespread protests, warnings and appeals from workers’ organisations and trade unions across the country.
They alleged that the codes were designed to serve the interests of domestic and foreign big capital and would lead to abolition of permanent jobs, facilitation of “hire and fire,” weakening of trade unions, increase in working hours, withdrawal of labour protections, dismantling of labour courts and labour departments, criminalisation of trade union activity, and heightened risks to workers’ safety.
The speakers described the Labour Codes as an attempt to roll back rights won through more than a century of trade union struggles and termed them an organised and brutal attack on the working class.
Concerns were also raised over the Draft National Labor and Employment Policy (Draft Shram Shakti Niti, 2025) released by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, which MASA leaders described as another anti-worker measure that departs from constitutional and modern labour principles.
Speakers said that workers were facing unprecedented hardship, marked by job losses, wage cuts, longer working hours and erosion of dignity, even as corporate profits were rising sharply. They criticised the ongoing privatisation of public sector industries, banks and insurance, and the withdrawal of essential social services.
MASA leaders further alleged that divisive politics based on communalism, casteism and chauvinist nationalism were being promoted to weaken working-class unity and divert attention from issues of exploitation and oppression.
From the Jantar Mantar platform, workers raised demands for a minimum monthly wage of ₹30,000, permanent and secure employment with full labour law protection, safe and dignified working conditions, and an end to privatisation, unemployment, inflation and divisive politics.
Similar programmes were organised in other parts of the country as part of All India Workers’ Rights Day, with participants vowing to intensify an uncompromising struggle against the Labour Codes and what they described as anti-worker policies.
MASA announced plans to join hands with other militant trade unions in the coming days to build an all-India movement for repeal of the Labour Codes and defence of workers’ rights.
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