The Inside Story Podcast Who benefits from India's sweeping new labour reforms?
Dec 3, 2025
Join Harshil Sharma, a labour economist specializing in reforms, Surbhi Kesar, a senior lecturer focused on labour markets, and Sudip Dutta, a trade union leader, as they dive into India's new labour laws. They discuss the historical context and the urgent need for reform. Sudip highlights unions' concerns over worker protections, while Surbhi examines the power shift towards employers. The group also addresses the impacts on women's safety and the precarious nature of unorganised work. Who truly stands to benefit from these sweeping changes?
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Reform Targets A Fragmented System
- India's pre-reform labour law system was fragmented with overlapping definitions and thousands of minimum wages creating compliance chaos.
- The new codes aim to simplify and reduce compliance but their implementation timing and methods made them controversial.
Unions See Massive Legal Erosion
- Sudip Dutta warns the codes place 90% of organised-sector workers outside protective legislation and legalise fixed-term work and extended hours.
- He argues these changes erode bargaining power and risk returning labour to exploitative relations.
Threshold Changes Exclude Small Firms
- Surbhi Kesar notes key thresholds changed, like factory coverage rising from 10 to 20 workers, excluding many enterprises from regulation.
- She frames the reforms within decades of liberalisation that shift power toward capital over labour.