APNS drive against 7th wage award
KARACHI- The All-Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has launched a countrywide campaign against the latest wage board award and the Newspaper Employees Act calling for the repeal of both to save the newspaper industry in the country.
The appeal addressed to President Pervez Musharraf says that the award involves payment of Rs 200 crores to newspaper employees over a period of five years without regard for the fact that Pakistan was undergoing one of the worst recessions. The question is also asked whether that there is any industry in Pakistan that can survive such a crushing burden.
The appeal maintains that the latest Wage Board Award will kill the newspaper industry. It also claims that no newspaper group in Pakistan can survive the 7th Wage Board Award. Within days of implementation of the 7th Wage Board Award, newspapers will begin to close down, thousands of journalists will lose their jobs and only those newspapers that toe the government line will be able to get some relief. The appeal questions if this was the scenario that the government wanted in respect of the newspaper industry in the country. It also asks if the above scenario is what the people of Pakistan want.
The appeal closes with the note that unless the Wage Board is repealed the above scenario is what the people will get for sum. Therefore, the APNS has maintained that abolishing the newspapers is wrong. It urges the President of Pakistan to withdraw the Wage Board Award and the Newspaper Employees Act
It may be mentioned that the Seventh Wage Board for newspaper employees was announced sometime ago by the government and the collective bargaining agents in all the newspapers in the country have been pressing for the implementation of the 7th Wage Board Award while the newspaper managements have maintained that the implementation of the Wage Board award is beyond their resources in the current economic situation that prevails in the country. The APNS has highlighted this in its appeal issued in the newspapers today addressed to the President of Pakistan.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:12/21/2001
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