All apex trade union bodies of newspaper employees have decided to stage a massive demonstration on 10th of October in New Delhi against the proposed abolition of the Working Journalists Act by the Central Government. This decision was taken in a meeting of the Confederation of Newspaper and News Agencies Employees Federation, which consisted of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ), the National Journalists Union (India) (NUJ(I) , All India Newspaper Employees Federation (AIENF), National Federation of Newspapers Employees (NFNE), Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and many plant-level unions like, the Hindu Employees Union, Indian Express Employees Union, the Tribune Employees Union, Assam Tribune, Times of India Employees Union and Bangalore Newspaper Employees Union.
The meeting appealed to the Central Government to eschew the obstinate attitude of repealing the Working Journalists Act otherwise all media employees of the country will be compelled to intensify their agitation. The meeting unanimously decided that the government must be prevailed upon to comprehensively amend the Working Journalists Act so as to bring the Electronic and Internet Media employees within its ambit. At present, the working conditions of employees working for the Electronic and Internet Media are very pathetic as they are deprived of even the basic minimum facilities, which are available to the employees of the print medium. The wages of the electronic and internet medium employees are whimsically decided by the owners. They are denied of the facilities of proper Leave and Holidays, Working hours, Provident Fund, ESI and Bonus etc.
The meeting wondered how the Working Journalists Act, which is a distinct Act has been proposed to be merged with 13 other laws including those of the Plantation Workers Act, Dock Workers Act, Mines Act, Factories Act, Beedi Workers Act, Cine and Theatre Workers Act. It is really strange that a special act like the Working Journalists Act can is being proposed to be merged with other acts when there is no commonality among them. How the working of the beedi workers, factory workers, mines workers and plantation workers are compared with the working journalists?
It was hoped in the meeting that the good sense would prevail on the Government and it will widen the scope of the Working Journalists instead of abrogating it lock, stock and barrel. The meeting also demanded that the new Wage Board should be set up and the government must take all necessary steps to ensure the implementation of the Majithia Wage Board recommendations. The Confederation demanded that the contractual appointment of the media employees should be banned and any proprietor violating it should be prosecuted.
Among those who spoke in the meeting were M.S. Yadav (Federation of PTI Employees Union), Hemant Tiwari and Parmanand Pandey (IFWJ), Akhouri Suresh Prasad (IJU), Ashok Malik (NUJ(I), Geetarth Pathak (IJU), G. Bhooathy (All India Newspaper Employees Federation), Anil Gupta (The Tribune), Mr Deka (Assam Tribune). The meeting was attended by nearly 150 representatives of the different unions.
The meeting condoled the death of the former Secretary-General of the IFWJ and a veteran journalist, who passed away last week in New Delhi.
Parmanand Pandey
Secretary-General, IFWJ
The meeting appealed to the Central Government to eschew the obstinate attitude of repealing the Working Journalists Act otherwise all media employees of the country will be compelled to intensify their agitation. The meeting unanimously decided that the government must be prevailed upon to comprehensively amend the Working Journalists Act so as to bring the Electronic and Internet Media employees within its ambit. At present, the working conditions of employees working for the Electronic and Internet Media are very pathetic as they are deprived of even the basic minimum facilities, which are available to the employees of the print medium. The wages of the electronic and internet medium employees are whimsically decided by the owners. They are denied of the facilities of proper Leave and Holidays, Working hours, Provident Fund, ESI and Bonus etc.
The meeting wondered how the Working Journalists Act, which is a distinct Act has been proposed to be merged with 13 other laws including those of the Plantation Workers Act, Dock Workers Act, Mines Act, Factories Act, Beedi Workers Act, Cine and Theatre Workers Act. It is really strange that a special act like the Working Journalists Act can is being proposed to be merged with other acts when there is no commonality among them. How the working of the beedi workers, factory workers, mines workers and plantation workers are compared with the working journalists?
It was hoped in the meeting that the good sense would prevail on the Government and it will widen the scope of the Working Journalists instead of abrogating it lock, stock and barrel. The meeting also demanded that the new Wage Board should be set up and the government must take all necessary steps to ensure the implementation of the Majithia Wage Board recommendations. The Confederation demanded that the contractual appointment of the media employees should be banned and any proprietor violating it should be prosecuted.
Among those who spoke in the meeting were M.S. Yadav (Federation of PTI Employees Union), Hemant Tiwari and Parmanand Pandey (IFWJ), Akhouri Suresh Prasad (IJU), Ashok Malik (NUJ(I), Geetarth Pathak (IJU), G. Bhooathy (All India Newspaper Employees Federation), Anil Gupta (The Tribune), Mr Deka (Assam Tribune). The meeting was attended by nearly 150 representatives of the different unions.
The meeting condoled the death of the former Secretary-General of the IFWJ and a veteran journalist, who passed away last week in New Delhi.
Parmanand Pandey
Secretary-General, IFWJ
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