There are 4236 employees, working for 32 newspapers in Rajasthan, who are eligible to get Majithia Award. Out of these more than 3600 are working for only two newspapers namely; Rajasthan Patrika and Dainik Bhaskar but not even one employees is being given wages and allowances as per the Majithia Award because the proprietors have used the ploy of either section 20j of the Majithia Wage Board recommendations or have put the employees in the managerial capacity. This is the crux of the report filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India by Shri Chandrabhan Singh, the Additional Labour Commissioner (Industrial Relations) of the State of Rajasthan.
The affidavit says that 414 complaints of the employees working for different newspapers across the state have been received by the Labour Department against the newspaper establishments for not implementing the report. It may be mentioned here that perhaps Rajasthan is the only state in the country, which appointed 37 labour inspectors, more than one for each district. The report says that 238 complaints were received from the employees of Dainik Bhaskar and 168 from Rajathan Patrika. The main grievance of the employees was that the managements forcibly obtained their declarations under section 20j of the Majithia Board Recommendations. The Bhaskar management has said that 1740 employees have given their declarations.
The management has also stated that those employees who have not given their declarations under section -20j are not covered by the Majithia Award because they are in the managerial capacity. The Labour Inspectors, however, on scrutiny found that only 738 declaration forms have been submitted to them. The most glaring anomaly that has been found by the Inspectors is that in those declaration forms, the dates mentioned were of much later than the stipulated period of 2nd December 2011. Similarly, there are 2179 employees in Rajathan Patrika and the management claims to have obtained declarations of 1318 employees. Like Dainik Bhaskar management, the Rajasthan Patrika also says that those, who have not given the declaration forms, are not entitled to the Majithia Award because of their being in the managerial cadre.
The affidavit further says that a team of Labour Inspectors visited Rajasthan Patrika office on 03.08.2015 and they randomly recorded the statements of 234 employees. Out of them 229 stated that they had given their declarations because the management forced them to do so. The report exposes the lies of the Patrika management, which claimed that the employees voluntarily gave the declarations and it had kept 24 separate registers for this purpose. But when the registers were demanded by the Inspectors for verification of the signatures of the employees, the management refused to make them available.
The Labour Inspectors also visited the offices of Dainik Navjyoti, Rashtra Doot and Samachar Jagat. Although these newspapers have not implemented the Award but none of their employees had registered any complaint till 16.08.2015. The management of Rashtra Doot has 15 employees on rolls and they have submitted the signed declarations of all employees under Section 20j.
Seven newspapers do not have any employees. Fifteen small newspapers have stated that they have implemented the Award because none of their employees has raised any objections. It is, therefore, clear that section 20j has been used as an easy and simple trick by all the newspapers of Rajasthan to deny the Majithia Award, which has come after a long wait of fifteen years. Now it is for the Hon’ble Supreme Court to see through the shenanigans of the newspapers so as to do justice to the employees of the newspapers.
Parmanand Pandey
Secy. Gen.
IFWJ
