Not just pay, also lag behind in dignity
Say journos comparing their pay scale with that of govt's
Journalists are not only getting less salary in comparison with the government employees, they are also behind in terms of dignity, said journalist leaders at a press conference yesterday.
The highest salary scale of a journalist under the existing eighth wage board is equivalent to that of the sixth grade of the ninth pay scale for the public servants, they pointed out.
A special grade government official draws Tk 86,000 as basic pay while a journalist gets Tk 35,875, they added.
Leaders of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and Dhaka Union of Journalists disclosed this at the conference, held at the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
They said the starting salary of a government official is Tk 22,000 while that of a journalist Tk 12,600.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on August 8 said the salaries and allowances given in five categories in the newspaper industry were higher than that of the government employees.
Refuting his claims, journalist leaders alleged that a vested quarter was trying to mislead the minister.
They also announced a series of programmes, including a daylong hunger strike on September 20 at Jatiya Press Club to press home their demand for the ninth wage board.
They decided to hold rallies and sit-in programmes in front of the secretariat every day from September 24.
The journalist leaders also decided to exclude Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu from all their programmes.
They also criticised the delay in inclusion of the electronic media in the wage board.
BFUJ-faction President Bulbul Ahmed and Secretary General Omar Faruk; DUJ president Shaban Mahmud and its General Secretary Sohel Haider Chowdhury also spoke.