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Unpaid Media Employees Of India

By Nava Thakuria

08 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org

India’s highest court on April 9 ruled that journalists and
non-journalists of newspapers and news agencies are entitled to a pay
hike under the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board. Dismissing
pleas by various owners seeking a review of its earlier judgment, the
Supreme Court directed publishers to implement the recommendations of
the latest wage board from this month on.

The bench comprising Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan
Gogoiand Justice Shiva Kirti Singh ruled that the wages as revised
‘would be payable from 11 November 2011’, when the Indian Union
government notified the recommendations of the Majithia Board.
“All the arrears up to March 2014 shall be paid to all eligible
employees in four equal installments within a period of one year and
continue to pay the revised wages from April 2014 onwards,” the
verdict noted.

The latest report of national wage board for working journalists and
other newspaper employees under the leadership of Justice GR Majithia
was presented to the Union government in New Delhi on 31 December
2010.

“A fine, fair and judicious balance has been achieved between the
expectations and aspirations of the employees and the capacity and
willingness of the employers to pay,” said Justice Majithia in an
interview.

He added that the report made suggestions for the consideration of the
government on issues like post-retirement benefits, a forward looking
promotion policy, measures to improve enforcement of the wage board
etc. As far as social security measures are concerned possibility of
granting paternity leave to male employees, extension of retirement
age up to 65 years, exploring pension scheme possibilities were
suggested going beyond the mandated wage structure revision, he added.
The wage boards for newspaper & news agency employees including
journalists, constituted under the working journalists and other
newspaper employees (conditions of service) and miscellaneous
provisions act 1955, are statutory. The prime responsibility for
implementing the recommendations of the wage board rests with the
concerned province governments and Union territories of India.
“Journalists are paid a lump sum without any welfare benefits and they
can be dismissed at will. Except for some newspapers the mainstream
publications had, ever since the wage board’s award came out in
2010,conducted only diatribes against the award,” said an editorial of
Economic & Political Weekly, a credible publication of India in its
29March 2014 issue.

It also added, “The burden of opinion pieces by either the owners or
top executives (usually in their own publications) was that small
newspapers would be forced to close down while the bigger ones would
be crippled. While five journalists’ trade unions and federations
fought the challenges in court, there was nary a word from journalists
or any form of public protest. The entire scenario illustrates well
the working conditions of journalists in the country today.”
Even the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional
non-governmental organization that monitors human rights in Asia and
advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the
protection and promotion of the rights, expressed concerns over the
salary and working conditions of media persons in India.
“In the last few years there has been a major change in the profile of
media houses, with an increasing number of high profile
businesspersons/organizations making an entry. Yet, working conditions
for media personnel remain close to the same,” said the AHRC statement
issued on 14 April from its headquarters in Hong Kong, adding that the
salary of newspaper employees is ‘minimal with no chance of raise no
matter how many years one has been on the job’.

Referring to India’s apex court’s decision to uphold the
recommendations of Majithia Wage Board for journalists and
non-journalists on their pay structure, the AHRC urged media houses to
honor and implement the recommendations of the latest wage board as a
matter of priority. It also called upon the State governments to
ensure a safe working atmosphere for journalists and make provisions
for social benefits like health and life insurance for the media
employees.

The Assam Tribune group of newspapers based in Guwahati was the first
media house in India to implement the recommendations of the latest
wage board since January 2012. The 70 years old media house did not
wait for the apex court verdict, as done by many big newspaper groups
of the country while challenging the constitutionality of the Majithia
Wage Board in the Supreme Court.

The editor of The Assam Tribune, PG Baruah, also the managing director
of the media house that publishes an Assamese daily, an Assamese
weekly and an Assamese literary magazine besides the English daily,
was candid when he spoke about the wage board implementation, “We have
given the employees their due. It is our duty and also the gesture.”
All Assam Media Employees Federation (AAMEF), while addressing the
matter of livelihood for media workers in northeast India has urged
the newspaper house managements to show their respect to the Supreme
Court by implementing the new wage board from this month. Appreciating
the Assam Tribune group for implementing the latest wage board
recommendations for the first time in the country, the AAMEF declared,
“It is now time for other media groups to show gesture to their
employees.”

“We have a model media house (Assam Tribune) that has successfully
survived for two years with the new wage board facilities to the
employees. Now we do not accept any logic that the Majithia
recommendations are not implementable. You have to have the minimum
commitment to the medium,” said Hiten Mahanta, president of AAMEF.
Speaking to this writer, Mahanta, also a veteran journalist of
Assam, expressed dismay that most media groups in the country have
made it a habit to show a loss-making balance sheet every year with an
aim to avoid paying proper salaries to the employees.

“But except few, it's a common practice for all the media barons to
divert funds from the collected amount of money from the advertisers
to other non-media enterprises owned by their families,” he asserted
adding that ‘the newspaper owners continue siphoning away the
essential resource of the media groups for their selfish interest only
to establish the media business as an unprofitable endeavor’.
Meanwhile, Journalists' Forum Assam (JFA) has urged the Union
government to facilitate the media persons engaged with the
privately-owned satellite news channels with systematic pay hike as
like their counterparts in the print media. The Assam-based scribes'
body pointed out that nearly 70 per cent television journalists were
still performing their duties with pitiable salaries (read monthly
financial package), unlimited working hours and without any facilities
recommended by the country's labour laws.

“More over, we demand for a social media audit where the esteemed
readers & viewers can find a transparent picture of the financial
dealings involved with their favorite newspapers & news channels,”
said Rupam Barua, president of JFA adding that the exercise would
ultimately help the media employees including the working journalists
in getting their due benefits under the law of the land.

Nava Thakuria is an independent journalist and presently covering
Northeast India and also its adjacent neighbors like Bhutan, Tibet,
Burma and Bangladesh. He also contribute to local television channels
of Assam.


 



 

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