The Construction Workers’ Federation of India said the Digital Labor Chowk app aims to promote deunionization by replacing a regulated digital matchmaking system for collective bargaining spaces. | Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
The Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) has questioned the recent launch of Digital Labor Chowk Portal/App, setting up of Labor Congratulatory Center (LCFC) and new online tax collection portal for building and construction workers by the Union Labor Ministry.
The federation said all of these programs are being implemented without consultation with unions and are aimed at “segregating” construction workers and helping employers. Citing “fundamental flaws” and “counterproductive implications” of the new measures, the CWFI has asked the Center to immediately halt the implementation of the programs.
CWFI said the technology-based initiatives are not steps towards worker empowerment or welfare, but a top-down bureaucratic exercise designed to prioritize data collection and oversight over the legal rights and participatory management of construction workers. In a statement, CWFI UP General Secretary Joseph said these initiatives are a thinly veiled distraction from the state’s fundamental failure to effectively register and pay workers billions of rupees under the Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) Act.
“Government is spending funds building digital gateways while keeping the vault locked. A digitized collection portal is absolutely useless if money continues to lie idle due to political and bureaucratic inertia and corruption,” said Mr Joseph.
He said the Digital Labor Chowk app is meant to promote de-unionization by replacing the regulated digital matchmaking system for collective bargaining spaces. “Requiring digital literacy and smartphone ownership is actively widening the digital divide, excluding the most vulnerable, illiterate and remote workers from accessing social services and leaving the unorganized majority behind,” he said, adding that the app would introduce algorithmic control, subject workers to surveillance and deployment decisions would be made without transparency or union oversight.
LCFCs, he said, are tools for state control and sanitation of organizational spaces. “The centers primarily function as delivery points for government programs, focusing on formally classifying workers as beneficiaries rather than intervening in labor law violations, enforcing on-site safety standards, or facilitating collective bargaining over wages and working conditions,” he said.
Published – 17 Nov 2025 19:59 IST
