‘Further suppression’
S. Varalakshmi, general secretary of the Karnataka State committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), argued that the inclusion of stringent provisions that were not in the 2020 codes have further suppressed the fundamental rights of the workers in the State.
Satyanand Mukund, State secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), criticised that despite Congress being in power in Karnataka, the State government had decided to follow what the Central government framed, without trying to change the rules in favour of the working class.
Right to strike
One of the major points raised by the trade unions was the restrictions to the right to strike.
According to the draft rules, the notice of strike shall be given to the employer of an industrial establishment, signed by the secretary and five elected representatives of the registered trade union in the letterhead of the union, marking copies to the conciliation officer, Labour Commissioner, and the State government. It also proposes that the notice of strike should be accompanied by a resolution passed by a majority of the workmen who are members of the union, and that five workmen sign the notice of strike along with the secretary of the union.
“The rules are placing unnecessary restrictions on unions. Employers can always claim there is no majority support. This way they are trying to ensure there are no strikes at all,” said Meenakshi Sundaram, president, CITU, Karnataka.
Mr. Satyanand said that the clause curtails collective bargaining rights that were hard fought for.
On retrenchment
The union leaders also criticised the clause which allows employers who employed less than 300 workers to retrench or layoff employees without prior permission from the government.
“It gives a lot of ease to the employers to retrench, layoff and close companies. Today, the size of the factories has shrunk. More than 90% of the factories registered in Karnataka have a strength of less than 300. So, basically, we are allowing 90% of factories the freedom to freely retrench,” said Mr. Mukunth.
Mr. Sundaram added that when the threshold was increased to 300 workers in the Bill initially, one of the suggestions was to give the affected employees a compensation equivalent to 90 days of wages per service.
“They have reduced it to 15 days now, but the threshold limit in terms of the number of workers has not been reduced. Further, the wage definitions have been changed to reduce the compensation that the affected workers are eligible for,” said Mr. Sundaram who alleged that several conditions have been included to ensure that the unions are starved of funds.
The union leaders also pointed out that the fee for registering a trade union has been steeply hiked from ₹10 to ₹1,000, and every further communication related to it has been made chargeable.
Consultations to follow
The trade unions also registered their displeasure at the Congress government for not taking a more pro-worker stance, despite labour falling in the concurrent list and thereby giving the State government the power to make change.
Following the notification of the labour codes in November, 2025, Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad, in a previous interaction with The Hindu, had said that the government would discuss elaborately with the parties concerned to decide the way forward.
Mr. Lad also then criticised the Union government of being “anti-labour”.
However, the trade unions said that no consultations were held with them before publishing the draft rules.
45-day window
Responding to this, Additional Labour Commissioner G. Manjunath said that pre-legislative consultations would be held with all stakeholders before finalising the rules. The draft rules will be in the public domain for 45 days for feedback.
“The Central government instructed to immediately republish the rules. Earlier when we published the draft rules in 2021, only a few trade unions responded. Based on those comments and feedback from employers, we have updated the draft rules this time. The unions have 45 days to give their suggestions and comments, based on which we will hold consultations,” he said.
