People's Democracy

        CITU Demands Settlement Of Newspaper Employees Demands

M K Pandhe, president, CITU, in a letter addressed to the union labour minister, demanded early settlement of charter of demands submitted by the All India Newspaper Employees Federation. The text of the letter is as follows:

You may be aware that the issue of wage revision to the newspaper employees has been pending for a long time. The Manisana Wage Boards were set up on September 3, 1994 and they had submitted the report to the labour ministry on July 27, 2002. A notification in this regard was also issued on December 5, 2002.

Ten years have elapsed since then and the government is yet to make a decision on the wage boards report.  The inordinate delay has created serious resentment among the employees. The wage boards were set up after considerable agitation by the newspaper and news agency employees.

In the meantime, charter of demands was submitted to the Indian Newspaper Society and the Indian Language Newspaper Association, the employers’ organisations on December 31, 2002. The employees also submitted another charter of demands to the government but no action has been taken on the demands of the employees. Considerable hope and anxiety has been generated among the newspaper employees after the UPA government came to power. They believe that the new government will take a sympathetic view on their grievances and take expeditious steps to settle the issue. The All India Newspaper Employees Federation has already approached you seeking your intervention in the matter.

I would request you to take expeditious decision on the wage boards report and redress the grievances of the newspaper employees, which have been lingering near about a decade.

(INN)