NAJ CALL FOR PHASED PROTESTS AGAINST ANTI-LABOUR AND ANTI -FARMER LAWS

The National Alliance of Journalists (NAJ), has called for phased protests against the anti labour and anti farmer bills passed arbitrarily in Parliament and has expressed solidarity with the struggling farmers and workers..

It has cautioned that an era of jungle law, to replace whatever job security existed, was being ushered in the country, step by step, threatening the very existence of journalism and security of wages, reducing most journalists to bonded labourers. A new era of hire and fire is also unfolding increasingly even in Covid 19 times, haunting the journalists profession as never before.

In a joint statement today President S.K. Pande, Secretary General N. Kondaiah have called for phased protests, starting from early October, to save the Working Journalist Act and other labour laws from being reduced to nothingness. Moreover any future wage board issue was being scuttled, while freedom of the press too was increasingly under pressure.

As for wage boards, the final signal has been given to ensure that the Working Journalist Act is subsumed in the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 planned meticulously since 2018 and hustled through Parliament now.