शीतांशु कुमार सहाय/ Sheetanshu Kumar Sahay
सर्वोच्च न्यायालय ने 7 फरवरी 2014 को पत्रकारों और समाचार पत्रों के अन्य कर्मचारियों के पक्ष में फैसला सुनाते हुए मजीठिया वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशों को वैध ठहराया है। उनका कहना है कि इसकी सिफारिश उचित विचार-विमर्श पर आधारित है। इसके साथ ही न्यायालय ने समाचार पत्रों द्वारा संस्था में कार्यरत पत्रकारों और अन्य कर्मचारियों के कानून की संवैधानिक वैधता को दी गई चुनौती को भी खारिज कर दिया है। न्यायालय के आदेश के अनुसार यह वेतन आयोग 11 नवंबर 2011 से लागू होगा जब इसे सरकार ने पेश किया था और 11 नवंबर 2011 से मार्च 2014 के बीच बकाया वेतन भी पत्रकारों को एक साल के अंदर चार बराबर किस्तों में दिया जाएगा। इसके साथ ही मजीठिया वेतन आयोग की सिफारिश के अनुसार अप्रैल 2014 से नया वेतन लागू किया जाएगा। आज जो अखबार प्रबंधक नये वेज बोर्ड पर आंसू बहा रहे हैं, उन्हें नहीं भूलना चाहिए कि उनके प्रोडक्ट यानी अखबार में जो चीज बिकती है- वह समाचार और विचार है। अन्य किस्म के उत्पादों में कई तरह का कच्चा माल लगता है लेकिन अखबार का असली कच्चा माल यानी समाचार और विचार वस्तुतः संवाददाताओं और संपादनकर्मियों की कड़ी मेहनत, दिमागी कसरत और कौशल से ही आता है। इस रूप में पत्रकार न सिर्फ स्वयं कच्चा माल जुटाते या उपलब्ध कराते हैं; बल्कि उसे तराश कर बेचने योग्य भी बनाते हैं। बड़ी हास्यापद है कि सर्वोच्च न्यायालय के 7 फरवरी 2014 को मजीठिया वेतन आयोग को लागू करने वाले फैसले को समाचार पत्रों व टीवी न्यूज चैनलों ने प्रमुखता से प्रकाशित नहीं किया। कई दैनिक समाचार पत्रों व न्यूज चैनलों ने तो इसे सुर्खियों में जगह भी नहीं दी। ऐसी स्थिति में प्रबन्धन की कुनीति ही उजागर स्पष्ट हुई। दूसरों के शोषण पर जमीन-आसमान एक करने वाले पत्रकार अपने शोषण के बाबत मूक क्यों दीखते हैं ?
मजीठिया वेतन आयोग की सिफारिश----
Wage Boards’ recommendations notified--
The Labour and Employment Ministry on Friday notified the recommendations of the Justice G.R. Majithia Wage Boards for the journalists and other employees of the newspapers/news agencies, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on October 25.
View the Gazette Notification.....
The revised wages, Dearness Allowance and variable pay, will be applicable to over 40,000 journalists and other employees from July 1, 2010, and the increased allowances like - House Rent, Travel, Medical, Hardship and Leave Travel will be applicable from November 11, 2011. The notification is issued subject to the final verdict of the Supreme Court, which is hearing into the petitions filed by some of the newspaper managements challenging the recommendations of the wage boards.
The Wage Boards were constituted in May 2007 and the Boards, led by former Mumbai High Court Judge Justice G.R. Majithia, gave their reports to the Centre on December 31, 2010.
Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said the government was taking various steps to protect the media and their employees and pointed out that he cleared the file regarding the notification despite being on tour in Gulbarga.
The Wage Boards have classified jobs into six groups and accordingly suggested six scales in each class of establishment.
The revised pay scale is based on the old basic pay plus Dearness Allowance (D.A.) admissible up to June 2010, plus 30 per cent of the basic pay which is being given as an interim relief.
The revised rate of dearness allowance is to be computed on the basis of the average all-India Consumer Price Index Number for Industrial Worker (2001=100) for the preceding twelve months compiled by the Labour Bureau and will become operative with effect from July 1, 2010.
The revised pay comprises of the variable pay at the rate of 35 per cent for the employees working in the first four classes of newspaper establishments (first two classes of news agencies) and 20 per cent for the bottom four classes of newspaper establishments (bottom two classes of news agencies).
The variable pay should be added to the revised basic pay for calculation of all allowances. The rate of neutralization of dearness allowance should be 100 per cent of basic pay for calculation of all the allowances.
The House Rent Allowance should be at the rate of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent and accordingly areas/cities should be classified into three categories i.e. X, Y and Z for this purpose.
The transport allowance should be 20 per cent, 10 per cent and 5 per cent in the respective areas defined as X, Y and Z. Night shift allowance should range between Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 for different classes of establishments.
देखिये कि किस तरह टाइम्स ऑफ इण्डिया ने आठ फरवरी 2014 के अपने दिल्ली संस्करण के पृष्ठ संख्या- 15 पर मजीठिया वेतन आयोग को लागू करने के आदेश के विरोध में कुतर्क पेश किया है--
THE TIMES OF INDIA, DELHI EDITION, PAGE NO.-15, DATE- 08 FEBRUARY 2014.
Blow for newspaper industry as SC upholds wage boards advice
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: In a decision that will adversely affect the newspaper industry,particularly the weaker ones among them,the Supreme Court on Friday asked newspapers and news agencies to implement the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board and pay their employees the revised pay scale with arrears from November 2011.A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and S K Singh rejected challenges to the wage board recommendations and asked newspapers and news agencies to pay the wage arrears in four equal instalments within one year and continue to pay revised wages from April 2014 onwards.
We hold the recommendations of the wage board are valid,based on genuine and acceptable considerations and there is no valid ground for interference, the bench said.
In the course of the case,newspaper associations,companies and news agencies challenged the validity of the Act and the wage boards constituted under it,on the ground that the newspaper industry is the solitary case today in the private sector in India where the government and not the employers decides how much salary wage board employees should be paid.
According to them,this is an antiquated legislation which has lost all social relevance in the modern age of high technology and electronic media.Newspaper establishments have been pointing out that no other media,including TV,internet and mobile,are shackled by a similar law.
The industry contended that wage fixation should now be left,as in other industries,to market forces of demand and supply.News organizations had pointed out that the government had not accepted recommendations pertaining to retirement age,pension,paternity leave and some other aspects of wage benefits terming them as beyond the objective for which the wage board was set up.
The industry was also unhappy with the constitution,functioning,procedure and recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board.Newspaper establishments have been saying that these recommendations,if fully implemented,would result in an 80-100 % wage hike,which would force many newspapers,particularly small and medium,to shut shop,thereby dealing a blow to the freedom of the Press.
They have argued that in the newspaper industry,non-journalist employees are already paid much higher than their counterparts in other industries,and this unnatural gap would broaden if the wage board recommendations are implemented.
The bench did not heed any of these arguments.It said,It is the prerogative of the central government to accept or reject the recommendations of the wage board.There is no scope for hearing the parties once again by the central government while accepting or modifying the recommendations,except that the modifications are of such nature which alter the character of the recommendations and such modification is likely to affect the parties. It said merely because the government had not accepted a few recommendations would not automatically affect the validity of the entire report.It also found substance in the argument that the Majithia Wage Board merely copied the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission.
TIMES VIEW----
The Supreme Court judgment will deal large sections of the print media a grievous body blow and will financially weaken even the few strong companies that are left in an industry that worldwide is under crushing pressure,with its very existence in question.
But there is a larger issue here: In this day and age,a government-appointed wage board that fixes compensation for the private sector is completely anachronistic.Fifty-eight years ago,when the first wage board was set up,the industry situation may have warranted government intervention to ensure employers didnt exploit employees.
But India has moved on: In the organized industry,there is a largely free and fair labour market that determines wages and salaries on the basis of supply and demand;for blue-collar staff in a company,the management and unions arrive at an agreement through bipartite negotiations.What the wage board,on the other hand,does is impose from above wages that are not financially sustainable.
Even more shocking,is that this is the only industry in India where wages are fixed for an organized industry by a centrally-constituted outside body,and where the terms and conditions of employment make it difficult for managements to weed out even the most inefficient and unproductive workers.Every survey in the world has shown that labour inflexibility actually hurts creation of jobs employers are wary of hiring even in boom time if they are not allowed to trim the workforce in a downturn.A flexible labour market,on the other hand,gives employers the confidence to add staff when a company,industry or market is expanding.
There is another inherent anomaly in the concept of a wage board in todays media industry.Tectonic changes are sweeping through the industry,driven largely by technology and shifts in consumer behaviour.Print is no longer the sole purveyor of information;there is television,there is internet,and increasingly,there is mobile,all of which are threatening to eat into prints market share.But none of these established or emerging mediums are covered by the wage board which creates an uneven playing field and puts print at a huge financial disadvantage.
In fact,as consumption of media becomes seamless,the very definition of a print journalist is being blurred.He/she is becoming platform agnostic,moving from filing for online to writing for print to appearing on television,all in the course of a single workday.
Further,the wage increases of about 80-100 % have been applied,retrospectively,across the board from journalists to press workers,drivers and peons.Even if one were to concede that journalists are special,what about the others A drivers salary will jump from Rs 36,000 to almost Rs 62,000 per month,a clerks from Rs 39,000 to over Rs 62,000,a peons from about Rs 33,000 to about Rs 58,000,a stenographers from Rs 40,000 to almost Rs 71,000,and a rotary machinemans from Rs 40,000 to over Rs 76,000.This is way above what factory/office workers make in most industries and most companies.
But these are details.The big,big question that needs to be addressed is a fundamental one: Should government be allowed to interfere in what is essentially an employee-employer relationship,that too in an organized,urban-centric industry Doesnt it violate the principle of market forces This paper is disappointed by the Supreme Court judgment.It is out of sync with the reality of contemporary media.It seeks to set the clock back to a time when the world looked very different.
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