This provided a rare occasion when both industry and worker representatives sat at the same table to disuss each act thoroughly. The Discussion Indian Labour Laws were enacted by the British colonial government and are still more or less the same. Industry was of the opinion that a law enacted 100 years ago has no relevance today. Industry felt that despite economic reform in the country, labour policy is unchanged. Industry wants the 'fundamental right to manage' believing that certain groups of organised workers who constitute only eight percent of the total workforce are overprotected.
Industry considers that employment generation is more important than employment protection.
Industrial representatives admitted that wages in India are low but the productivity of workers is very low and thus the labour costs are high. The trade unions quickly demanded to know the parameters industry uses to judge productivity, as this is a complicated and debatable issue. Trade unions felt that industry and government were deliberately exaggerating the 'overprotection of certain organised workers', to divide organised from unorganised workers. They argued that organised workers with basic rights should not be regarded as overprotected. It took decades of struggle for them to achieve those rights.