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New Delhi: While the critique of the neoliberal assault on labour often focuses on external barricades like the right to strike, there exists a quieter, more pervasive violence that operates within the factory walls — a “micro-physics of power“, to borrow Foucault’s phrase, that disciplines the worker’s body and mind every single hour of the shift. The Draft Industrial Relations (Central) Rules, 2025, through its Model Standing Orders (Schedule B), has expanded the definition of “misconduct” to a degree that critics argue effectively criminalises the human condition of the worker.

If the Industrial Relations Code functions as the constitution of the workplace, the Standing Orders are its penal code. The new definitions suggest a regime that disciplines the worker’s body and mind, punishing them for existing as human beings rather than automatons.

A significant addition to the list of misconducts is “go-slow”. To the corporate eye, go-slow is an insidious sabotage of productivity. However, viewed from the shop floor, it takes on a different meaning.

In an era where production targets are algorithmically determined and pushed to physiological limits, “go-slow” is often the body’s only defence against collapse. It is the collective refusal to work at an unsafe pace.........

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