वृत्तपत्र कर्मचाऱ्यांना मजीठिया वेज बोर्डाचे लाभ न देणाऱ्या वृत्तपत्रांची RNI नोंदणी रद्द करणार; वृत्तपत्र मालकांवर सक्त कारवाईचा सुप्रीम कोर्टाचा इशारा
गुळमुळीत आणि बोटचेपे धोरण अवलंबलेल्या वृत्तपत्र मालकधार्जिण्या राज्य सरकारांनाही कानपिचक्या
Supreme Court order tightens the noose around newspaper owners, LCs to get dressing down
The Order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India as passed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice P. C. Pant on 14.03.2016 with regard to the Contempt Petitions filed by the employees against the various newspaper proprietors is two pronged;
1. Those newspapers, which have not implemented the Majithia Wage Board Award till date have been warned to fall in line and implement the same, in its letter and spirit, from 11.11.2011. This includes the Assured Career Promotion for the benefit of the employees and reclassification of the newspapers as per their increased gross revenue. For example; Eenadu of Telangana and Andhar Pradesh is giving the salary to the employees at least one/two class below than they are entitled to. Some newspapers like; Dainik Jagran, Nai Dunia, Hindustan Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Rajasthan Patrika and Prabhat Khabar etc. are the flagrant violators.
2. The second part of the order is concerned with individual employees. It may be noted here that in its order of 28.04.2015 the Bench consisting of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice N.V. Ramana had asked all the State Governments to file the Status Report with regard to the implementation of the Majithia Award. The order of 12.01.2016 further tightened the grip on defaulting owners and asked the employees to file their affidavits on the issue of harassment, victimisation, repression and forceful obtaining of undertakings from the employees. The number of affidavits filed by the newspaper employees from all over the country, were so huge that the Hon’ble Supreme Court was shocked with the enormity of exploitation by the newspaper proprietors and that was the reason on 14.03.2016, it asked;
(a) State Governments, which have not filed the status report, must file before 05.07.2016 otherwise; the Chief Secretaries of the concerned States will have to be physically present to get the dressing down of the court.
(b) The individual employees, who have been harassed or victimized must approach the concerned Labour Commissioner for the recovery of dues from their respective Managements. The Labour Commissioner will then have to report it back to the Hon’ble Court about the compliance.
(c) Nevertheless, those newspaper owners who have decided to remain incorrigible will have to face the contempt based on the pleadings and the Status Report as submitted by the Governments.
Therefore, we advise the individual employees that they should not lose this golden opportunity to avail the Majithia Award and present the claim of the amount of dues, which they are entitled to before the Labour Commissions or Deputy Labour Commissioners. The registry of Supreme Court is sending the copy of the order to all Labour Commissioners to comply with. Therefore, this claim should be made before the Labour Commissioners/Deputy Labour Commissioner without losing the time.
