Justice G.R. Majithia (left), chairman of the wage boards for working journalists and non-journalists and other newspaper employees, submitting the recommendations to labour secretary P.K. Chaturvedi in New Delhi, on January 1, 2011
The following is the full text of the media release issued by the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in response to the report submitted by the wage board led by former Supreme Court judge, G.R. Majithia, which recommended a 35 per cent hike in salaries for working journalists, and increased the retirement age to 65 years.
***
“Members of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) have at an emergency meeting held in Mumbai on 20 January 2011 expressed shock and dismay at the report submitted by the chairman of the wage boards for working journalists and other newspaper employees, and said that this, if accepted by the government, would drive several newspaper establishments out of business. They urged the government to reject the report.
“The president of the INS, Kundan R. Vyas, said that the report was severely flawed and utterly one-sided. The wage boards had been improperly constituted, and the report had been prepared in breach of several rules and time-tested procedures. Further, the wage boards had exceeded their remit under the statute by suggesting measures that were manifestly beyond their scope and terms of reference.
“Echoing the sentiments of the large body of newspapers represented at the emergency meeting, Vyas said that the existence of these wage boards was itself out of tune with the times as even the national commission on labour had in 2002 recommended that there was no need for any wage board, statutory or otherwise, for fixing the wages for workers in any industry. The newspaper industry is the only one which has statutory wage boards, and their presence is aimed at financially compromising the ability of establishments to function in a free and fearless manner, Vyas said.
“The present wage boards had submitted their report without prior consultations among members. The boards had ignored settled principles to assess the capacity to pay, and had made no effort to assess the burden on the newspaper industry, Vyas said. Not just this, the wage boards had not even bothered to publish tentative proposals as was done by earlier wage determining authorities, to respect the principles of fair play and natural justice.”
IJR 
I strongly condemn the TOI and big newspaper owners to reject the wageboards proposal and i request the apex court to take matter and give the judgement in favour of the journalist and non-journalist workers who suffer and work for low salaries when the cost of essential commodities have risen several folds.
Journalists work on survival wages. With better wages their performance will improve, which in turn will boost the newspaper’s circulation.
Shubha Khandekar
It is just the capitalist attitude of big dailies, not to allow journalists get a share of their spoils. These major newspapers indulge in biased promotions and increments, favouring people of whom some have no merit. The Supreme Court must teach an appopriate lesson to these papers and come to the rescue of oppressed journalists and set things right.