The publishers of Eenadu newspapers from all districts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have stepped up the harassment and victimization of the employees. The newspaper is forcibly seeking resignations of employees. This fact has also been accepted in a report of the Commissioner of Labour, Telangana, Ahmad Nadeem, IAS.
The Labour Commissioner has said in his report that on the complaint of the employees of Ushodaya Publication, he called a meeting of the employees and employers. The management acknowledged the fact that about 200 employees have resigned voluntarily. The management also said that due to advent of the state-of-the-art technology, the employees were rendered redundant and as result of that, the management was forced to reduce to workforce. The employees however, vehemently denied that they were ever offered the voluntary retirement scheme. The scheme was never put on the notice board. In fact, they were pressurized to quit the job to circumvent the Majithia Award.
The Labour Commissioner has also said in his report that ‘It is to be placed on record that through the prolonged discussion, the management could not impress that the resignations were voluntary acts of the employees, as it could not convincingly answer any query pertaining to the problem on hand. On the other hand, there existed every reason to believe that the employees could not have voluntarily submitted their resignations.
The Labour Commissioner has said ‘having regard to all the relevant facts and circumstances that came for discussion at the above meeting, and keeping in view the best interests of industrial peace in the publication house of Eenadu newspaper, we have advised the management as follows:-
a) To treat all the resignations of all your non-journalists employees submitted during the past 30 days as null, void and no-existent as the employees themselves have openly declared that the said resignations were not their voluntary Acts.
b) In case the management intends to offer any voluntary retirement scheme to its employees, it is at full at liberty to do so, by first communicating in writing to each and every detail of the proposed scheme, give sufficient opportunity, otherwise, it will amount to unfair labour practice.
c) To maintain all the postings of the employees as they exist as on 12.9.2014. Any sort of transfers, at this juncture, would be treated as Victimization.
d) To implement the Majithia Wage Board Award to all the eligible employees in the scale concerned.
e) To note that any deviation from the above all, will render liable for action under ID Act, 1947.’
In view of above, the Labour Commissioner has clearly opined that the management of Ushodaya Publications Private Limited neither has taken the employees into service after considerable time nor implemented the Majithia award.
It is the high time that appropriate action be taken against the management of the newspaper. A Contempt Petition (c) No. 571/2014 against the Ushodaya Publication has been filed in the Supreme Court by IFWJ Secretary General and Advocate Parmanand Pandey.
