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Journalists’ collectives have appealed to parliamentarians to oppose the New Labour Codes expected to be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament as being “anti-employee” and promoting unfair labour practices.
In a memorandum to all new Lok Sabha MPs, the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) said the proposal to repeal Working Journalists & Other News Paper Employees (Conditions of Service & Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1955, and The Working Journalists (Fixation of Wages) Act, 1958, through the New Labour Codes will further undermine the independence of the media.
“We are intrigued at how these laws are now sought to be repealed by placing them innocuously in a Labour Code on Occupational Health and Safety. These two Acts are the aadhar of the print media. It is these Acts that regulate working conditions, including working hours, night shifts, earned leaves, maternity leave and provident fund and enable the periodic setting up of Wage Boards that decide pay scales for the newspaper industry,” said the DUJ.
Without such legal protection, the independence of journalists will be further weakened, it said.
“Already, measures such as short-term contracts have rendered journalists financially insecure and vulnerable. The absence of a decent pension and other benefits compounds our problems,” said the DUJ.
‘Attack on rights’
It said the attempt to bring in four Labour Codes to replace as many as 44 vital labour legislations is an attack on the hard won rights of the working people.
The Central Trade Unions and other trade unions of the unorganised sector have already opposed the Labour Codes.
The Codes are meant to ensure ‘ease of doing business’ while undermining the average citizen’s ‘ease of working and living’.
Among the Acts to be repealed are the Factories Act, The Mines Act, the Building & Other Construction Workers Act, the Contract Labour Act, the Inter State Migrant Workers Act and other path breaking legislation for the welfare of workers.
“The entire exercise is hastily planned and extremely arbitrary. Lumping together various Acts that the Parliament in its wisdom has passed over 70-plus years, in response to the specific nature and needs of various industries and work sectors, seems absurd.
For instance, why should dock workers and journalists be governed by the same law? How much do these two sectors have in common? The situation of beedi workers is completely different from those in the automobile sector, so why should they be clubbed together?” said the DUJ.
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