Union Cabinet approves recommendations of Wage Boards for journalists

New Delhi, 25 October, 2011

The Union Cabinet today approved the final recommendations of the Wage Boards along with certain corrections and rectifications carried out under Section 12(1) of the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (conditions of Service) & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955.

The Government had earlier constituted two Wage Boards in May 2007.

The Chairman of the Wage Boards, Justice G.R. Majithia submitted the final report to the Government on 31st December, 2010.

The recommendations contained in Chapter XIX and XX of the final report will be published in the Gazette of India for implementation by the newspaper establishments and news agencies.

The revised rates of wages will come into force with effect from 1st July, 2010 and other allowances like transport allowance, house rent allowance, hardship allowance shall be effective from the date of notification of the awards in the Gazette.

More than 40,000 newspaper employees in the country will be benefited by this decision.

Justice Majithia, who had headed the boards and gave his final reports to the labour ministry, without the approval of the management representatives, had noted then that he had only given “justifiable and reasonable hike in wages and other perks of the employees” considering all the aspects – revenue from the advertisement, circulation, annual growth rate, labour cost and financial strength – of the cross section of the media managements. “The new wages were not recommended in excess. I did my job in a very honest and principled way and it is to be kept in mind that no employee could work with empty stomach” he had told The Hindu then.

Justice Majithia had pointed out that the Boards had concluded that the labour cost of the industry (management) ranged from 10 – 14 per cent of the total expenditure cost. The goal of the Wage Boards was to “transform the quality of life and give them (the employees) access to good health, education and economic opportunities,” he said.

What’s there in report

– 2.5 to 3 times hike in basic pay and fixing the retirement age at 65. The revised basic pay has been computed after merging the existing basic pay, the dearness allowance and the 30 per cent interim relief already granted besides 35 per cent variable pay.

-The Boards also recommended that the dearness allowance shall be paid by-annually with effect from July 1 and January 1 every year and the rate of neutralisation for determining the DA would be 100 per cent of the basic pay for all groups of employees.

-It recommended revision of house rent, transport, and night shift allowances, the Chairman said.

-It has been recommended that the HRA be paid at the rate of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent of the basic pay to employees posted in areas defined as area X, Y and Z respectively.

-Transport allowance at the rate of 20 per cent, 10 per cent and five per cent shall be paid by newspaper establishments to its employees posted in respective areas defined as X, Y and Z respectively.

-The hardship allowance has been recommended at Rs. 1000 for employees working in hilly areas.

-The employees working in the newspaper establishment of classes I and II and classes III and IV shall be paid medical allowance at the rate of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 per month per employee respectively. But no medical allowance shall be paid to employees who are covered by the Employees State Insurance Corporation.”

-News agencies with a revenue of over Rs. 60 crore have been put in the same place as top rung newspapers following the Boards’ reclassification of news papers and news agencies.

The Report has classified newspaper establishments into eight categories, and news agencies into four categories based on gross revenues. Recommended pay scales have been classified into six categories for jobs in each class of establishment. Pay scales have been worked out by adding old basic pay and DA admissible up to June 2010 plus 30 Percent of interim relief. The revised pay would have a component of ‘variable’ pay at the rate of 35 percent for employees working in first top four classes of establishments and 20 percent for other four classes of establishments. The ‘variable’ pay will be added in the revised basic pay for calculation of all allowances. Effective date of implementation would be from 1st of July 2010.

The monthly emoluments for the lowest category of employee in the lowest class of establishment would work out to be Rs. 9000 for the basic pay at floor level minimum wage of Rs. 5000. The revised basic pay would however range from Rs. 9000 to Rs. 17500 for non-journalists and from Rs. 13000 to Rs. 25000 for working journalists in the top establishment having gross revenues of more than Rs. 1000 crores.

As far as social security measures are concerned possibility of granting paternity leave to male employees, retirement age of 65 years, and exploring pension scheme possibilities have been suggested going beyond the mandated wage structure revision.

The wage board has further recommended night shift allowance, hard ship allowance; transport allowance and House rent allowance for different class of establishments. It has recommended that a permanent mechanism in the form of a tribunal be set up to adjudicate on complaints regarding non-implementation or circumvention of the Award. Also Employers are to ensure that while engaging contractual workers they must atleast offer same salary for the same work which is performed by the regular employee.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment vide Notifications No. S.O. 809(E) and 810 (E) dated 24th May 2007 as well as Notifications No. S.O. 1066 (E) and 1067(E) dated 3.7.2007 had constituted two separate statutory Wage Boards – one for Working Journalists and another for other Newspaper Employees – in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 9 of the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45 of 1955) under the Chairmanship of Dr. Justice K. Narayana Kurup, formerly Judge, High Court of Kerala and Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Madras for the purpose of fixing and revising rates of wages in respect of Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees, respectively. Consequent upon resignation of Dr. Justice K. Narayana Kurup, the Government of India then appointed Justice G.R. Majithia as Chairman of Wage boards vide Notification nos. S.O. 580(E) and S.O. 581 (E) dated 28th February 2009. The Wage Boards are tripartite in character in which representative of workers, employers, independent members participate and finalize the recommendation. The Wage Boards for journalists and non – journalist newspaper and news-agency employees are statutory in nature. The prime responsibility for implementing the recommendations of the Wage Board rests with the concerned State Governments / Union Territories under the provision of the act.