Confederation of Newspaper and News Agency Employees’ Organisations (CNNAEO) on Friday decried attempts to “sabotage” the wage revision in the print media, stating validity of the law, under which wage boards for the newspaper industry are set up, has been upheld by the Supreme Court several times.
Warning of an “industrial action” if such attempts continue, CNNAEO general secretary M. S. Yadav said in a statement that the wage boards for the newspaper and news agencies’ employees comprise equal number of representatives of employers and employees, besides some independent members.
Such attempts are being made as the government is in the process of approving recommendations of the wage boards for employees of newspapers and news agencies headed by Justice G. R. Majithia.
The boards, constituted under the Working Journalists Act, are presided over by a High Court or a Supreme Court judge, he said.
“To accuse them of arbitrariness is to condemn the high judicial dignitaries who presided over them”, Mr. Yadav said.
He said the need for a wage board arose because of the fragmented nature of the industry with thousands of the employees dispersed all over the country.
He rubbished arguments that the newspaper industry has suffered because of the so-called “high wages”. He said that in the last 50 years since enactment of the WJ Act, the newspaper industry has gone from strength to strength.
He said the newspaper industry has witnessed a compound annual growth rate of 7.27 per cent between 1998-99 and 2007-08.
He warned if attempts continue to “sabotage” the wage boards, the Confederation, which is spearheading the agitation for early notification of the wage boards’ recommendations, would have no option but to take recourse to industrial action.”
