Analysis > Wage board wars
3 COMMENTS
  • S Murari

    I agree with the National Labour Commission’s observation that wage boards are outdated and bilateral negotiations are the best bet. This was told to me way back in the late 1960s by T R Ramaswamy, the then president of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists. I remember TOI package was better than the wage board’s, especially the DA. The old TOI did not adopt hire and fire . Whether wage board or contract, the management can always get rid of unwanted employees, using punitive transfer. Given the labour courts’ delay in deciding a case, the employees are always at the mercy of the management.

  • Mihir Bhonsale

    The article exposes the gimmicks of news-houses to deny the news-gatherers their dues. The article rightly brings out the struggle between the workers and the owners, often the former remain silent sufferers. One reason is that increasingly journalists are coerced into believing that they cannot be dubbed as ‘labour’ in any other industry, they do intellectual work, how can they have unions if they are individuals with varying intellect from one another. The article goes on to show that journalists are like any other industry are first by building their labourers, selling their labour to the industry.

  • Alpana Chowdhury

    Very few wage board employees are left, so why are employers making such a hullabulloo? They should pay those who have been employed as per wage board stipulations according to the Supreme Court ruling. Employers cannot backtrack after having employed journalists on certain terms and conditions. If all other citizens have to follow the law of the land newspaper barons too have to do so.

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