How the new Labour Codes undid 70 years of labour rights progress of working journalists
With one stroke, working journalists and other workmen in newspaper establishments have lost labour benefits they have enjoyed since 1955, when two protective laws were first legislated to protect their service conditions and rates of wages.
Justice K. Chandru (Retd.)
Published on: 13 January 2026, 08:01 am
ON NOVEMBER 21, 2025, newspapers flashed full page advertisements sponsored by the central government, declaring proudly about labour reforms for ‘Atmbanirbhar Bharat’, and for ushering a new era for gig and online platform workers. Ironically, with that same stroke, working journalists and other workmen in newspaper establishments had lost all benefits gained since 1955, when two protective laws were first legislated to protect their service conditions and rates of wages.
In the past, two National Labour Commission have worked on reforming labour laws and recommending means to reduce labour disputes. While the first and second labour commissions, led by Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar (in 1969) and Justice Ravindra Varma (in 1982), provided several recommendations, those remained unenforced on paper. In the meantime, with no major reforms contemplated, the Indian government continued to bring in piecemeal amendments to the plethora of labour laws in the country, which remained the most comprehensive in the world.
The Ravindra Varma Commission had been the first to recommend the consolidation of the independent labour enactments and for their codification with simplification. Over the years, the advent of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation of the economy impacted the labour economy, with the restructuring of investment policy and new industrial production making many of the labour laws irrelevant. Technocrats now ran the show with outsourced labour, with judicial support justifying the outsourcing of labour with little or no protection at all.
In the past, two National Labour Commission have worked on reforming labour laws and recommending means to reduce labour disputes.
Labour regulations in newspaper establishments
Newspaper establishments have been composed of two categories of workers, mainly - journalists, and non-working journalists such as clerical staff and other staff involved in printing and circulation of newspapers. When India’s first labour legislation, the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, was brought in, its application to the newspaper industry was difficult. On one hand, the minority of the workers, the working journalists, did not strictly come within the definition of “workmen” under the ID Act. On the other hand, the other employees and workmen engaged in other work of the establishments were certainly covered by labour legislations enacted by the Central and State governments..
Strong labour unions in the press attached to the newspaper establishments were able to make use of the labour machinery for various disputes while the working journalists were left to fend for themselves. Admittedly their pay structure was very poor and mostly depended upon the circulation of the newspapers. At this stage, the Press Commission, constituted by the Central government, inquired into the conditions of employment of working journalists and made recommendations for improvement and regulation of such service conditions by means of legislation.
