Wage board for journalists demanded

New Delhi, July 28 (UNI) The demand for a new wage board for journalists and non-journalist employees of newspapers and news agencies was raised in the Lok Sabha today in the wake of the constitution of the Sixth Pay Commission for central government employees.

The new wage board should have a definite time-frame for implementation of the recommendations for revised pay scales, Communist Party of India (Marxist) member K S Manoj said.

The television journalists should also be brought under the purview of the Working Journalists Act 1955, he added.

He said till the time the new pay scales come into effect, the journalists and non-journalist employees should be given a 25 per cent interim relief.

As the government has announced constitution of the Sixth Pay Commission for central government employees, it is only proper that a wage board is formed for the media, which is the ''fourth pillar of democracy'', he added.

UNI FZ Vd BD1909