Nearly Nine Crore rupees given as Majithia arrears to employees in Gujarat

The Labour Commissioner of Gujarat Shri Kamlesh Ochhavlal Shah says that in order to comply with the direction of the Supreme Court all Deputy Commissioners, all Assistant Labour Commissioners, all Labour Officers of the state have been declared as Inspectors for their respective jurisdiction to prepare the status report on the implementation of Majithia Award. As per the status report submitted in the Supreme Court in all 65 newspaper establishments were inspected by the Labour Officials. Seven newspaper establishments have been found to have paid Rs. 8, 93, 19,309/- as arrears to 624 employees.

The State Government has instituted 59 criminal cases against those newspapers, which have been found to be violating section 13 of the Working Journalists Act. The Act says that newspaper employees cannot be paid less than what the Wage Boards have recommended. 

D.B Cops., the publishers of Dainik Bhaskar and Divya Bhaskar have adopted the same tactics of Section 20J, which it has adopted in other states to deny the wages to its employees. 

The report also tells that since D.B. Corporation has not produced any documentary evidence to ensure the fulfilment of the provision of the Working Journalists Act, therefore, a criminal case has been instituted against it.

Parmanand Pandey
Secretary General

IFWJ