TUs Condemn Illegal Termination Of HT Employees

The central trade unions – CITU, AITUC, INTUC, BMS and HMS have jointly issued the following statement on October 20.

WE condemn the arbitrary and illegal termination of the services of 362 regular permanent employees of the Hindustan Times on October 3, 2004 and support the struggle of the Hindustan Times Employees Union for their immediate reinstatement.  The ‘retrenchment’ of these workmen on the pretext of a change in ownership is absolutely baseless as both the Hindustan Times Ltd. and its subsidiary HT Media are owned and controlled by the K K Birla group. The only difference is that HT Media has an Australian equity-holder with a 15.38 per cent stake. Obviously, the management has turned a blind eye to the existing law of the land. This example shows how the entry of FDI in newspaper industry will hit at the interest of the newspaper employees. The central trade union organisations we represent shall, therefore, collectively rally all the resources at their command to ensure that the victimised employees get justice at the earliest.

Manipulating the lock-out of the printing section of the newspaper on Gandhi Jayanti and dismissal of 362 employees next morning by pasting just a one liner notice at the entry gate, with platoons of armed police personnel, private security and musclemen in attendance, reminds one of the primitive time of lawlessness. The union government should immediately intervene in the matter and direct the competent authorities to enforce the reversal of the termination of the services of these workmen. The prime minister raised the new slogan of ‘Rozgar Badhao’ on October 4 and if the summary dismissal of the 362 is overtly or covertly accepted silently, it will be a mockery of democracy in the country.

As all know, the judicial process in our country takes a long time and with bread-earners of 362 families without jobs, for many it will be difficult to sustain the luxury of a long drawn out legal proceeding. We, therefore, demand that the management of Hindustan Times Ltd. be directed by the government to reinstate the workmen arbitrarily and illegally terminated without any valid reason. (INN)