Do you remember the BiTV lockout? Something worse than that happened on November 30, 2008. Sakaal Times, the English daily brought out in May (renaming the existing Maharashtra Herald) by the Sakaal group of Pune (of the Marathi daily Sakaal fame) and helmed by wannabe media baron Abhijit Pawar (nephew of Nationalist Congress Party-NCP leader, Union Minister and former Broard for Control of Criket in India- BCCI president Sharad Pawar), suddenly decided to close down its Delhi operations without any prior intimation to any of its employees, making nearly 80 people jobless at one go.
Those impacted are not worthless people—all of them, including me, had left secure jobs in respected media houses to join what sounded like an ambitious media venture from one of the most-respected media houses of Maharashtra. The plans were big—following the Pune edition, there will be editions from places like (Navi) Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and even a small edition from Delhi.
The paper looked impressive—with well thought-out stories and a nice design. "Welcome to the Sakaal family. Here all employees are treated like family members. Please visit our Pune headquarters sometime to know how we work like a family," were the golden words from Arun Barera, the CEO of the Sakaal Media Group during his interaction with a bunch of us around July-August, when the paper's Delhi office was still in Asia Pacific Communications Associates (APCA) House in NOIDA. APCA, helmed by Dilip Padgaonkar and Anikendra Nath (Badshah) Sen, had taken charge of recruiting people and launching the venture as a BOT project. They did the job nicely and handed over the project to the Sakaal group on November 1, 2008. Everything seemed good for all of us.
Then since about a month ago, things began to go wrong—about 8-10 people were asked to leave, but resident editor Dhananjay Sardeshpande called in groups to assure that nobody from the news bureau and features would be touched. "Our plans have got delayed because of the market condition, but we will launch our Delhi edition by the end of this fiscal and our other plans are still there. We need all you people to be part of our vision," he told us. Just about two days ago, one colleague, who called him up, was told by Anand Agashe, director-editor of the newspaper, that whatever rumours were floating around were baseless. He, of course, said there will be a reduction of the number of pages, and a decision would be taken around December 2-3.
Suddenly, in the morning of November 30, a "Notice", actually a printout on a blank sheet of paper (not the company letterhead), signed by an "authorised signatory" whose name or designation was not mentioned, was found pasted on the locked gates of the premises at the 1st floor of Pratap Bhawan on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, saying the Delhi operations are being wound up. The letter was dated November 30, while the termination notice, with a cheque for part of our salaries for this month and one more month (minus the allowances which are paid against bills submitted) were sent through speed post to all of us individually at our residence addresses from Pune on November 29 (some of us got the mails on December 1 while others are yet to get their individual copies).
The so-called 'Notice' said:
(For the information of the employees working for Sakaal Times)
Subject – Operations of Sakaal Times at Delhi
The new daily is incurring heavy expenses on Delhi operations resulting into substantial losses to the company. You are aware that this is further compounded by the present serious downtrend in the economy. Due to the dame the circulation and the revenue generation of the newspaper has been seriously affected. Due to this it has become inevitable for the company to restructure its operations. On account of the said restructuring the Editorial work so far carried out at Delhi is no longer required to be continued. As a result, the operations are stopped forthwith and the persons working for Sakaal Times operations are being relieved. The necessary communication has already been sent to the individual employees on their postal address registered with the company. The relevant employees need not attend the office from today onwards.
The work of Magazines and TV will continue after some modifications of the premises for which the same will be closed for few days.
For Sakaal Papers limited
Authorized Signatory
There was a rubber stamp of Sakaal Papers Limited, New Delhi affixed next to the illegible signature, which looked like an "A".
Agitated employees gathered during the day itself on Sunday, November 30, to discuss the matter. Quite astonishingly, colleagues who were working till late night on November 29 had no inkling of what was going to happen in the morning. In fact, one colleague was in Rajasthan covering the elections there when the lock out was announced!
The employees, finding that the premises have been locked out with some of their valuable belongings inside (eg, bank passbooks, chequebooks, etc.) decided to register a complaint with the IP Estate Police Station regarding this. Photo Editor KK Laskar, as the convenor of the committee of Sakaal Times employees formed to fight the sudden lockout, registered the complaint. Till then, nobody who has a say in Sakaal Times—Abhijit Pawar, Anand Agashe, Arun Barera, Dhananjay Sardeshpande, HR director Pradeepkumar Khire—picked up numerous phone calls made by senior journalists who wanted to find out the exact situation. But within one hour of filing the police complaint, Pawar called up Laskar, claiming there had been a "communication gap" and things should not have been done as they have been. He "requested" Laskar to ask all employees to come to office on Monday, December 2, to discuss the matter with a team from Pune.
Almost at the same time, Pawar, Khire, Agashe gave contradictory and false statements to media persons who contacted them on the developments.
From Mint: [Link]
Abhijit Pawar, managing director of the 76-year-old Sakaal Media Group, said staffers had been informed earlier. "It has just been brought to my attention that the communication hadn't reached everyone, and I'm sorry if that is the case. I have been told that a communication had been made informally to senior members of the staff in Delhi and it was supposed to have reached everyone. Everyone is being adequately compensated," Pawar added.
Just look at the casual stance he has taken. Saying just a mere "sorry" for snatching the livelihoods of around 80 people. Just look at the way he claims "I have been told….". Do you "informally" communicate to senior staff or any staff members about a lockout (which anyway is a blatant lie as there was no such communication to anyone)? "It was supposed to reach…." The sheer insensitiveness of this man seeps through every word of his quote.
From IANS: [Link]:
Sakal Papers' Director, Human Resources and Operations, Pradip Khire denied the charge of the staff that they had not been informed about the impending closure. 'It was communicated to them that their services are no more required and their dues are being settled,' Khire told IANS in Pune.
Another blatant lie. Can he provide any proof that staff had been informed about the closure? Even the "termination of contract" letter received by some people on December 1 (posted on November 29, but received only by some on December 1) does not mention anything about the closure. It only talks about the company's "right" to "terminate your services without assigning any reason by giving one month's notice or a notice pay in lieu of notice… the company has decided to exercise this right and is terminating your contractual employment w.e.f 30-11-2008 after working hours".
Where is the mention of the lockout? Can you find another such example of fork-tongued speak? As we all know, there is a standard procedure for lock outs. Businesses may and do go bad, but the way Sakaal Times has done it, is pure evil. If it reminds everyone of how some chit fund operators vanish after pocketing money of investors, well, you are not at fault. Any ethical company would have taken its employees into confidence, told them that they would have to shut down, and would have given them at least a month's time so that they can look out for alternative jobs. But this is what a 75-year-old media group does.
