The farmers and workers will continue to protest and mount pressure on the Narendra Modi government to withdraw four labour laws that were introduced “without consultations with trade unions.”

Left and Congress-backed labour unions on Friday trained their guns at the central government over the four labour laws and demanded their withdrawal. They are planning to hold a Bharat Bandh for two days during the budget session of Parliament in February next year.

Ever since the farmers’ agitation began, 10 labour unions, including the Congress-affiliated Intuc, CPM-backed Citu, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) and the CPI-backed Aituc have been actively supporting the demand for the repeal of the farm laws.

In the last two years, Parliament has passed four labour laws — the Wage Code, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, Industrial Relations Code and the Social Security Code. These laws have subsumed 29 existing labour laws. The government is in the process of framing rules for their implementation.

The Industrial Relations Code, which provides for speedy redress of workers’ disputes, gives exemption to firms engaging up to 300 employees to retrench people without approval of the state governments.

The Wage Code merely provides a threshold floor-level wage, not a minimum wage. The Occupational Safety Code that provides for safety standards at workplaces exempts labour contractors engaging up to 50 workers. The Social Security Code provides for social security measures but does not clearly mention the financial obligation of the central government.

“It is our demand that the labour laws be repealed. Tomorrow, the Intuc’s national working committee is meeting to decide the future course of action. The fight will go on jointly with the farmers,” said Ashok Singh, general secretary of Intuc.

Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, general secretary of the HMS, said: “The bills should have been discussed in tripartite forums like the Indian Labour Conference represented by workers, employers and government. But the ILC has not been conducted since 2015.”

Citu said, “We call upon the working class and the peasantry to strengthen the unity and intensify the struggles against the anti people policies of the BJP/NDA government.” Aituc said the four labour codes and the privatisation bid were the other aspects of the “subversion plan.”