The CPI-M has accused the government of taking "anti-working class measures" and called for a "struggle against the increasing authoritarianism of the Modi government".An editorial in the CPI-M mouthpiece "People's Democracy" said the Narendra Modi government was taking "anti-working class measures" in the name of ensuring "ease of business" and to supposedly provide jobs."The working class movement is opposing all these anti-labour measures vigorously," it said, and referring to the nationwide strike called by the central trade unions on September 2. The editorial followed the government's U-turn on its proposal to tax 60 percent of the withdrawal from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) corpus following widespread protests.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist pointed out that the government was now proposing to come up with amendments to the Factories Act. "The amendments, if adopted, will take away more than 75 percent of the industrial workforce out of the purview of the Act by changing the definition of factory," the editorial said. "All factories with workforce up to 40 will be out of the purview of the Factories Act. A new bill is to be brought for small factories... for those up to 40 workers. "That bill states that 14 basic labour laws will not be applicable to small factories."