The Hindu : National : Newspaper employees protest against retrenchment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

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National

Newspaper employees protest against retrenchment

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 13 . The indefinite dharna by hundreds of employees of the Hindustan Times group of publications to protest against the retrenchment of 362 people from the organisation entered the 12th day today.

According to the Hindustan Times Employees Union general secretary, S.N. Sinha, the management put up a general "termination" notice on the gate on October 2 saying that the services of the 362 employees in the printing section were no longer required. The employees were stopped by police from entering the premises when they reported for duty that day.

Describing this act as "illegal and with malafide intentions on the part of the management," Mr. Sinha said that those who lost their jobs were given a compensation of one month's salary in lieu of the notice period and an additional 15 days salary. The newspaper group had already started a subsidiary in the name of HT Media Limited, which took care of the printing of the two newspapers brought out by the group. As much as 15.38 per cent equity of the new company was with an Australian finance group and all the people employed there were on contract. Mr. Sinha added that the retrenchments were being done to make foreign direct investment attractive.

Mr. Sinha said the matter was placed before the Delhi High Court two years ago when the management first decided to shift its printing activities to Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon in Haryana, both adjoining New Delhi. "At that point, we had given in writing to the management and the court that we were willing to work from the new premises. We, however, wanted a composite agreement with the management on the terms and conditions of the service, which the management was not interested in," he said. The latest action of retrenching 362 people had now been placed before the Labour Commissioner, he added. Efforts to speak to the management proved futile.

The Delhi Union of Journalists described retrenchment as violation of the Factories Act, the Shops and Establishments Act and the Working Journalists Act. The DUJ is supporting the employees union in their "struggle."

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