BJP-led Government Empowers Employers to Extend Working Hours to 12, CITU Calls It a ‘Draconian Law’ and Vows Agitation

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, September 27, 2025

The recent decision of the BJP-led coalition government in Tripura to legally empower employers to make workers work up to 12 hours a day has sparked sharp criticism from opposition Left parties and trade unions. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has condemned the move as a “draconian, anti-worker and anti-people law,” and announced plans to launch an agitation against it.

During the last Assembly session on September 19, the state government introduced two amendment bills 'The Tripura Shops and Establishments (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2025 and The Tripura Factories (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025', which were moved by Labour Minister Tinku Roy. On September 23, both bills were passed unilaterally without any discussion in the House.

The amendments allow employers to extend daily working hours from 8 to 12, replacing the long-established right of workers to an eight-hour workday. The bills also permit women employees to be engaged in night shifts, without any clear provisions ensuring safe transportation, workplace security, or related safeguards.

CITU leaders including state president Manik Dey, vice president Panchali Bhattacharya, and secretaries Samar Chakraborty and Amal Chakraborty strongly denounced the move at a press conference held at the organization’s state office in Agartala on Friday. “The BJP government has handed over exploitative powers to the owners, turning workers into virtual bonded labourers. This is nothing but slavery in the name of law,” they asserted.

Highlighting the global standard of “8 hours work, 8 hours recreation, and 8 hours rest,” CITU leaders pointed out that the right was achieved through decades of workers’ struggle and is also backed by United Nations conventions and International Labour Organization (ILO) guidelines, which prohibit such regressive changes in the name of corporate interests.

They further noted that since 1926, India’s labour laws have acted as a protective shield for workers even after Independence. But in the name of “reforms,” governments are now dismantling these safeguards and pushing nearly 29 labour laws in favour of employers.

CITU warned that if the state government does not withdraw the amendments, widespread agitation and protests will follow.

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