Justice at last, Cabinet clears the Wage board
recommendations for media
recommendations for media
According to an official press release the decision, taken at a meeting of the union cabinet, will benefit more than 40,000 employees of newspapers and news agencies across the country.
Justice (Retd) G.R. Majithia headed both the wage boards - one for journalists and another for non-journalist employees - which were appointed in May 2007.
"The cabinet today approved the final recommendations alongwith certain corrections and rectifications carried out under the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees Act, 1955," the release added.
The revised wages will be paid with retrospective effect from July 2010.
The recommendations regarding allowances like the transport allowance, house rent allowance and hardship allowance will come into effect from the date of the notification of the wage board awards in the gazette.
Though the Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition filed by some newspaper managements challenging the wage boards' reports, which were submitted on Dec 31, 2010, the apex court said recently that it was not preventing the government from approving the recommendations.
NUJ (I) welcomes: The National Union of Journalists (India) welcomed the Government decision to accept the recommendations of the Justice Majithia Wage Boards on the emoluments of working journalists and non-journalists in the newspapers and news agencies.
In a statement, issued in New Delhi today, the NUJ (I) president Prajnananda Choudhury and Secretary General Ras Bihari said they welcome the Government decision accepting the recommendations of the
Majithia Wage Boards but at the same time regret the long delay of ten months in government coming to a decision after the recommendations were received on December 31, 2010.
We also congratulate the Confederation of Newspaper Employees Unions and its General Secretary M.S. Yadav for the relentless effort put in along with the NUJ (I) and other constituent unions to bring the
Boards into existence and successfully conclude their work and then get the Government to adopt the recommendations, they said in the statement.
The statement further said the newspaper/news agency employees displayed exemplary unity of purpose and readiness to sacrifice for the cause of getting the Wage Boards function, recommend and get the
government notify the recommendations. This solidarity would further strengthen the trade union movement among the newspaper/news agency employees under the leadership of the Confederation.
The NUJ (I) would wait for the Government notification on the issue before giving its detailed response to the long delayed step raising the emoluments of the employees, working journalists and non-journalists alike that has come, it is recalled, 13 long years after the last revision.
Journalists Association of Karnataka (JAK) welcomes with thanks:
State President of JAK, Prof. B. Harischandra Bhat has issued a press statement welcoming the Union Cabinet decision approving the Wage Board recomondations.
The full Text of Statement is here:
We, the President and members of Journalists' Association of Karnataka Thank the Union Cabinet for accepting the report of the Justice Majithia Wage Board for Journalists and Non-journalist Employees of
the newspaper and news agencies. We are more overwhelmed to congratulate the Labour Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge in this respect. We in Karnataka had the unique distinction of presenting before the
Wage board the case for higher wages to Journalists and non journalist employees unitedly.
We thank UNI and PTI unions, Indian Express Employees, Bangalore Newspaper Employees Union (BNEU), Deccan Herald and Prajavani Employees Union for keeping faith in JAK while presenting the case, fighting for implementation of the Report. We also thank President of the State Unit of INTUC Shri Adyanthaya for the solidarity with us during the agitation and using his good offices at National level. We hope that the Newspaper Managements will see reason in implementing the report of the Wage Board in toto with out further loss of time.
To read more details click here for report appeared in The Hindu Website.
-Nethrakere Udaya Shankara
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