Lok Sabha MP asks govt to set up wage board for journos and non-journos to ensure labour laws enforcement

A Lok Sabha member on Thursday raised the issue of labour laws when it comes to rights of journalists. The MP 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.

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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.

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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.