Of the several statues that dot the stretch along the Marina beach, the Labour statue remains the most famous. The statue, officially called ‘Triumph of Labour’, was installed along with the Mahatma Gandhi statue as part of the beautification project of the Marina beach. The Labour statue, which remains a standing testament to the labour union movement in the city, was sculpted by D.P. Roy Chowdhry, who was the former principal of the Government School of Arts, and unveiled by the then Madras Governor Bishnuram Medhi in the presence of Chief Minister K. Kamaraj, Finance Minister C. Subramanian, and Minister for Works P. Kakkan, at a grand function held on the Marina beach as part of the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, 1959.

A replica of a statue installed in Delhi, the ‘Triumph of Labour’ depicts workers toiling to raise a rock, and cost ₹50,000. The statue was given a facelift by the Greater Chennai Corporation in March 2013, along with the installation of a foundation with an artificial cascade.