Set up new wage board for journalists: MP in LS
MP N K Premachandran on Thursday urged the government to set up a new wage board for journalists.
New Delhi, Mar 23: A member in the Lok Sabha on Thursday asked the government to set up a wage board for journalists and non-journalists and ensure stringent enforcement of labour laws in the newspaper industry to check 'merciless retrenchment'.
RSP member N K Premachandran also said that journalists and non-journalists working in the visual and electronic media should be brought under the purview of the Working Journalists Act, 1955 and should be brought under the Wage Board.
"Many newspapers are mercilessly retrenching journalists and non-journalists without observing the labour laws and rules," Premachandran said.
The government should ensure stringent enforcement of labour laws in the newspaper and media industry, he said.
Under
the
Working
Journalists
Act
of
1955,
wages
should
be
revised
once
in
five
years
but
it
is
over
10
years
since
the
last
committee
was
constituted,
he
said
during
Zero
Hour.
He
urged
the
Labour
ministry
to
'immediately
constitute
a
wage
board'
to
revise
the
wages
and
service
conditions
of
the
working
journalists
and
non-journalists
in
the
print
media.
Premachandran also said that most of the newspapers have not even implemented the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board, which was set up in 2007.
Meanwhile, during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, JD-U member Sharad Yadav expressed regret that he had made a wrong statement regarding a prominent Delhi-based newspaper in the House the previous day.
Yadav said that while making a statement on Majithia Wage Board, he was informed by a member that the newspaper has been sold off.
The JD-U leader said he used the 'wrong' information in his speech. "I regret it," he said.
PTI