People's Democracy

Chittrabrata Writes To PM Seeking Justice For HT Workers

THE CPI(M) member of parliament and CITU general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar in a letter to prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh requested him to appreciate the gravity of the situation in the newspaper industry in general and in Delhi in particular. He has called for an early solution to the Hindustan Times tangle.

The letter dated February 23, 2006 states: “The Hindustan Times management has, as you may be aware, sacked 362 permanent employees on October 2, 2004 and victimised several others. This has been done in flagrant violation of the law of the land. Without seeking mandatory permission of the state government under Industrial Dispute Act, the management has terminated these employees. It is really very sad that the government, both state and central, who should have taken suo moto punitive action against the delinquent management, have turned a deaf ear to scores of pleas by the Hindustan Times Employees Union and the Delhi Union of Journalists in this regard.

"The situation has further aggravated since then. Encouraged by the abdication of their responsibilities by the statutory authorities, the Hindustan Times management has let loose a reign of terror and victimisation. Issuing false charge sheets against the union office-bearers and activists, it has started dismissing them, even though they are declared protected workmen under the law and exempt from such punishment. It has already sacked Javed Faridi, general secretary of the union.

"It has also coerced majority of permanent journalists into accepting short-term contracts and transferred a large number of them to distant places by way of punishment."

WAGE BOARD

Chittabrata Majumdar has also taken up the long-pending demand of the journalists regarding constitution of a new wage board with the prime minister. In his letter he writes: "Apart from the Hindustan Times issue, there has been a longstanding demand of the entire newspaper industry workers, both journalists and non-journalists, for immediate constitution of the Wage Board. You may be aware it is more than a decade ago, since the last wage revision in the industry took place. Whereas in other sectors, wages have been revised twice, if not thrice, during this period, newspaper workers have been denied their legitimate due. It is the statutory responsibility of the centre to set up the Wage Board. The wage board, however has not materialised despite Parliament Standing Committee on Labour asking the government to do so. It may also be pointed out here that the profits of media barons have multiplied since then." (INN)