New Delhi : Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) has strongly condemned the unilateral decision of the Hindustan Times Management to close down the publication of newspaper from Bhopal, Indore, Ranchi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Kolkata.
IFWJ Secretary General Parmanand Pandey and Treasurer Rinku Yadav have fervently appealed to the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal to intervene and prevail upon the Hindustan Times management to stop forthwith the victimisation of journalist and non-journalist employees and not shut the newspaper. The arbitrary closure of the six editions of the newspaper and whimsical retrenchment of large number of employee from many centres is an act of downright illegality and clear violation of labour laws.
The Hindustan Times management is, it must be mentioned, guilty of denying the wages and allowances to its employees as per Majithia Wage Boards recommendations. Shockingly, it has adopted the most despicable method of changing the designations and indiscriminately transferring the employees to far off places to deprive them the benefits of the Wage Boards. Now the proprietors have crossed the limits of notoriety by pulling down the shutters without taking permission from the appropriate governments and the employees into confidence.
The IFWJ will bring this atrocious act of the Hindustan Times management to the notice of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, already seized of the contempt petitions filed against many newspapers, including the Hindustan times, for deliberately not implementing the Majithia recommendations.
The IFWJ has also appealed to employees to send the details about the number of workmen, their designations, nature of employment and present wages so as an additional affidavit could be filed in the Supreme Court. The employees of different editions have been advised to, at once, lodge complaint with labour commissioner of the respective states describing the highhandedness of the newspaper management.
Sribhagwan Bhardwaj
Office Secretary, IFWJ
