Journalists and newspaper employees Thursday held a demonstration outside UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's residence in New Delhi to demand interim relief under the wage boards set for them, the Press Trust of India (PTI0 has reported. The demonstration was held under the banner of the Confederation of Newspaper and News Agency Employees Organisations, which also sought "proper" functioning of the Wage Boards.
A five-member delegation of the confederation met Gandhi and submitted a memorandum to her seeking expeditious declaration of interim relief. The delegation, comprising Confederation General Secretary MS Yadav, Suresh Akhouri, NK Trikha, ML Joshi and Santosh Kumar, complained about the "tardy" functioning of the wage boards. Yadav later said the Congress President promised to look into the matter and ensure that the wage boards functioned properly.
The details:
The Confederation alleged that the Wage Boards Chairman Justice K Narayana Kurup, Member Secretary K M Sahni and Assessor Harcharan Singh were touring all over the country and meeting newspaper owners to make "realistic assessment" about the extent of implementation of the earlier Manisana Singh Wage Boards, the memorandum said.
"This is patently wrong and not mandated by the Working Journalists Act," it said.
The delegation told Gandhi that though the Union Labour Minister had been apprised of the matter, "nothing has been done so far".
The Confederation also noted with concern the meeting called by the Chairman in the name of Wage Boards in Kochi on March 25 "without informing any member of the Wage Boards" and said "this is totally against the interest of journalists and non-journalist employees of the newspaper industry".
It pointed out that the first meeting of the Wage Boards, held on June 30, 2007, had decided that any future agenda and the date of the next meeting would be decided by all members of the Wage Boards. The second meeting was held at Kochi on August 3, 2007 in which it was decided that the notification on interim relief should be the first priority of the Wage Boards. But since then no meeting of the Wage Boards has been called, the Confederation said.
The Confederation leaders had on wednesday met Defence Minister A K Antony and apprised him of the position. "The report of the Sixth Pay Commission has come. But the wage boards set up for journalists and non-journalist employees have so far not announced any interim relief. Interim relief for us should be immediately announced," Yadav added.
