IFWJ and DUWJ Oppose Abolition of Working Journalists Act

Friends,

Government of India has decided to repeal the Working Journalists Act, which was enacted in 1955 on the recommendations of the First Press Commission, which has been opposed by the IFWJ. The validity of the Act has been challenged by newspaper owners twice in the Supreme Court; once in the Indian Express Case in 1955 and the second time in ‘ABP and Another vs Union of India and others in 2011. The first time the Act was upheld by the constitution bench and the second time it was reiterated and reaffirmed by three judges bench of the Supreme Court, which consisted of the then Chief Justice P.S. Sathashivam, the Present Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and Justice Shivkirti Singh, now retired.

We have been demanding that instead of repealing the Working Journalists Act it should be reinforced and strengthened by comprehensively amending it as it has proved to be thoroughly inadequate in the present times.

Our major demand is that:

(a)      It should be made self-contained.

(b)      All streams of media should be brought within the purview of the Working Journalists Act; and

(c)      the new Wage Board should be immediately set up for all media employees.

We have sent our latest representation today to the Union Minister for Labour and Employment. It is a joint memorandum of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) and the Delhi Union of Working Journalists (DUWJ) signed by its President Shri Alkshendra Singh Negi.

Following is the memorandum to the Union Minister.

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Date: 06.09.2019

To

Shri Santosh Gangwar

Union Minister for Labour and Employment

Government of India

Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg,

New Delhi-110001

Sub.: Regarding the Working Journalists Act.

Sir,

This is to draw your attention to the all-round concern being felt by thousands of journalists and non- journalists’ employees of the newspaper industry over the reported move of the Government to the repeal the Working Journalists Act of 1955. IFWJ is the oldest and the largest journalist organisation of the country, which was founded on 28th of October 1950 under a banyan tree at Jantar Mantar of New Delhi. It was because of the efforts of our organisation the first Press Commission was set up by the Government of India under the chairmanship of Justice GC Rajyadhyaksh, which recommended in its report of 1954 for the enactment of the Working Journalists Act, which was unanimously passed by both houses of Parliament in 1955. To the best of our information no journalist’s union, at least not our Federation, has been consulted about the proposed abrogation of this Act.

While we fully appreciate and endorse the initiative of the government for compressing 44 labour laws into four code bills because we feel that multiplicity of the labour laws has done more damage to the cause of the working class than giving them any benefits. We also feel that the Working Journalist Act should not only be retained but strengthened' It is a sui generis, a distinct act from all other acts. There is no doubt that employers have been taking advantage of the archaic and multiplicity of labour laws to harass and victimise the workers. Since the managements have the resources so they can the luxury of being litigation-loving, but the poor workers cannot afford to go around the courts for years together without getting any justice in most of the cases.

The worker has to struggle to fend for himself or herself and this makes him/ her highly vulnerable before the employers. He or she has to work hard to make both ends meet, which, in any case, is not the problem with the employers. In the majority of the cases, the workers are migrants in different cities as they come from various states and remote places to work, where there is always the problem for them to find a roof to live. At present, the workers' unions are not very strong mainly because of the contract system of employment of the employees.

The Working Journalists Act of 1955 provides certain facilities to the working journalists like; a journalist can be terminated from the job only after the payment of three months’ salary which is six months in the case of an editor. As far as the gratuity is concerned it is lopsided against them because while other workers in other sectors are entitled to get their gratuity only after the completion of five years of regular service but in the case of a journalist, it is ten years. In case of those journalists who resign from their jobs on the call of their conscience after three years of their service, they can also avail the gratuity as per the Working Journalists Act, but it is easier said than done because it is an uphill task for any journalist to prove that he or she has resigned on the basis of the voice of his/her conscience.

Apart from it, a distinct feature of the Working Journalists Act is the provision for the constitution of the Wage Boards from time to time for the revision of the wages and allowances of the journalists and non-journalists working for the print medium. Nonetheless, a large number of journalists and non-journalist employees have hardly been benefited by the Wage Board recommendations. At present there are more than twenty thousand cases pending in different Labour Courts of the country where the workers have filed the complaints about the non-implementation of latest Wage Board i.e. the Majithia Wage Board recommendations, which was constituted more than ten years ago in the year 2008 and submitted its report in the year 2010. The employers are using all the weapons in their armoury to delay the disposal of the cases.

We, therefore, have the following request to you that (a) the Working Journalists Act should be comprehensively amended so as to bring the print, electronic, new media, social media and digital media in its ambit ; (b) A new Wage Board should be set up for revising the wages and allowances for all media employees to neutralise the  inflation in the last more than ten years; (c) A media commission must be constituted to find out the changes that have taken place in the light of  the huge explosion in the communication technology particularly in the last two decades more due to the advent of the internet; (d) to suggest the ways and means to make the new  media, digital media more responsive and responsible towards society and the profession.

We also demand that the contract employees of the journalists and the other media employees should be banned because of their hiring and firing at the whims and fancies of the proprietors are biggest danger to the freedom of speech and expression. The exploitative managements have been indulging into such anti-labour with gay abandon, without having any consideration for the livelihood of the employees.

The provision for the Wage Boards should not be disturbed and the Act should be made stronger and more self-contained instead of compressing it with other acts or codes. It must also be ensured that the recommendations of the Wage Boards are properly implemented failing which the provision of exemplary punishment and penalty in the Act. The facilities of limited duty hours, holidays and the period of notice on the termination of media employees should be retained.

The journalists have been availing the protection of this Act although very yet any attempt to repeal it would cause dissatisfaction among newspaper employees therefore, we demand it should be comprehensively but not rescinded.

We hope and believe that the Government will seriously consider over the protection of the interests of the media persons of all spectrums (print, electronic, internet, social, digital and the new media) and amend it exhaustively.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,    

Parmanand Pandey 

Secretary-General, IFWJ                  

Alkshendra Singh Negi 

President - DUWJ