Cabinet meeting cancelled : Matijhia wage proposals yet to be discussed.

The Prime Minister had cancelled the scheduled meeting of the Union Cabinet and decided to fly to Mumbai to take stock of the situation barely hours after Home Minister P Chidambaram left following an assessment of the magnitude of the tragedy and review of the security arrangements. 

Earlier news :

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and various unions of journalists have a lot of work these days. The Justice Majithia wage boards recommendations will be placed in front of the Cabinet today (14 July) and both the INS and workers’ unions are trying their best to impress their demands upon the government. General Secretary of the Confederation of Newspaper and News Agency Employees' Organisations (CNNAEO), MS Yadav is leaving no stone unturned to make the government realise that implementation of these recommendations is necessary for the employees. However, INS feels that the Majithia boards recommendations did not care about the interest of the newspapers.

It must be mentioned here that the INS had already rejected the Majithia boards recommendations. The effect of the wage board recommendations would be severe for big newspapers like the The Times of India, The Hindu and The Tribune and big news agencies like Press Trust of India (PTI). In case of TOI, non-journalistic staff will gain the most from the wage board recommendations. In Delhi, there are about 1,490 people, including technicians, drivers and other workers who fall under the wage board. Their salaries will be increased 2.5 times and it may not be financially viable for the newspaper to pay these employees high salaries. However, in case of journalistic staff, the wage board recommendations hardly make any difference to the paper as there are mere 20-25 employees in Delhi, who fall under the wage board. Most of the journalistic staff in TOI work on contract.

Other big newspapers which may be affected by the wage board include The Hindu, where most of the employees are permanent. In case of The Tribune, employees work on permanent basis except in  the Delhi edition. However, in case of The Hindustan Times in Delhi, the wage board recommendations mean nothing as most of their employees work on contract. A union worker told IPP on condition of anonymity that HTThe Indian Express has most of its employees on contract, Jansatta, the group’s Hindi paper, has a good number of permanent employees sacked around 362 permanent employees a few years ago and a case has been going on in the court on this issue. 

Although The two premier news agencies of the country, namely PTI and UNI would be affected too. There are around 600 employees in PTI and 500 in UNI in Delhi who fall under the wage board. Both the sides are trying to woo people in the power corridors. Some of the political parties like the Janata Dal United, the Left parties have also shown their support to the employees’ union.