'Announce 6th Wage Board Award immediately'
Staff Correspondent
Sangbadik Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, an association of journalists, employees and workers of the newspaper industry, has called on the caretaker government to announce the Sixth Wage Board Award immediately taking into account the objections raised by them. The Parishad leaders made the call in a letter sent to the chief adviser to the caretaker government yesterday after reviewing the latest developments regarding the wage board award at a meeting at the National Press Club on Wednesday, says a press release. In the letter, the leaders said the 6th Wage Board was formed during the tenure of the previous government following a prolonged struggle by the newspapermen. After the board submitted its recommendations regarding the wage board award, the newspapermen accepted most of them but raised objections to a few recommendations and urged the then government to reconsider them, the leaders added. They said Law and Information Adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein at a meeting also assured them of forming a tripartite committee to monitor the issue of announcement and implementation of the wage board award. "But now we came to know that the information adviser is suddenly trying to bring some amendments to the wage board award without consulting any members of the board or journalists and employees," they said, adding that such amendments would deprive journalists, employees and workers of the facilities they have been enjoying in line with the previous wage board award. "We are also deeply concerned at informal statements of the information adviser regarding the wage board award, which made us believe that he is acting as a narrow-minded and authoritarian owner in the newspaper industry, not as a representative of the government or state," the Parishad leaders said. They said the issue of wage board award is linked to the life and livelihood of newspapermen, as they have to depend on it for leading an honest life with their family members. They also warned that the journalists, employees and workers would not be sitting idle if their basic right to livelihood is jeopardised. They appealed to the chief adviser to intervene in this situation so that the information adviser cannot impose the award with amendments brought by him alone. The signatories to the letter are Parishad leaders Mozammel Haque, Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Fazle Imam, Ruhul Amin Gazi, Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, Matiur Rahman Talukder, Altaf Mahmud, Azizul Islam Banna, Omar Faruque, Sarder Farid, Abul Hashem and Khairul Islam.
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