UNI employees launch agitation over non-payment of 56 months’ salary

New Delhi: After facing hardhships for months and years, UNI employees have launched a relay hunger strike and resorted to dharna here to protest against non-payment of 56 months’ salaries and other dues.

Shailendra Jha and Mahesh Rajput, convenors of newly formed All-India UNI Employees’ Front, said that the newly-appointed Editor-in-chief himself draws a salary of Rs. 2 lakh but around 250 regular employees are being asked to accept a paltry sum of 15,000/- against 56 month old salary.

Moreover, employees who have retired or have left the company in recent years are not being paid legal dues like gratuity etc as well as pending salaries.

The agitation, at UNI head office, today entered 2nd day. Federation of PTI Employees Unions, Indian Express Workers Union, PTI Workers Union and All-India Employees of Newspapers Federation, Delhi Union of Journalists and BrihanMumbai Union of Journalists are supporting the agitation.

They said UNI employees were filled with hope when on the occasion of the 60th foundation day of the news agency,
Chairman of the Board of Directors Sagar Mukhopadhyay said, “The rich legacy of UNI is the fruit borne by 60 years of collective efforts of generations of UNI’s employees. For this and more, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the present and retired staff of UNI and their families who have stood by the organization even through adverse circumstances and displayed remarkable commitment.”

He had also promised, “A growth map has been identified for the agency and will be made public shortly.”

On April 3, 2021, in an Extraoridinary General Body Meeting of shareholders, Pawan Kumar Sharma, a Supreme Court lawyer, was inducted as Director and Vishwas Tripathi was removed from the BoD. After these developments the UNI Board now comprise four Directors, including Sumeet Maheshwari of Nava Bharat group who is a Director since November 2018.

According to a UNI news report, representatives of four shareholders — Jagran Prakashan Ltd., Kasturi & Sons Ltd., Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd. and Manipal Media Network – were physically present while the representatives of three shareholders – HT Media Ltd., Statesman Ltd. and Nava Bharat Press (Bhopal) Ltd. joined the meeting through video conferencing.

Jha and Raput said that an advertisement for appointments to two of the top posts, namely, Editor-in-Chief and General Manager (Operations & Marketing) was given in newspapers in the 3rd week of April mentioning “Remunerations shall not be a constraint for right candidates” even as there is a backlog of more than 50 months’ salaries of around 250 employees across 43 centers across the country! However, employees hoped against hope that the new managers will ensure the welfare of all employees.

Soon after the appointment of the Editor-in-Chief, there was a spate of contractual appointments in the editorial as well as other departments. There were also panic resignations and some regular as well contractual employees left the organization. There was talk of regular employees being asked to accept contractual employment.

They said contractual employment, introduced in UNI, in the 2000s, also comes handy to divide and rule employees. Whereas, contractual employees are paid regularly, pay-roll employees are made to wait for their salaries for months together. The delay in salary payments began in 2006 and since then the situation has worsened beyond limits.

”At present, the gap between two salary payments has increased between six and eight months in many centers. Which means that employees are not even getting two salaries in a year!

Also, the recent contractual appointments are peculiar in a sense as these are for top positions in all the departments, including editorial. It is bound to affect regular employees as they will be denied deserving promotions in the near future as well as in the long run,” said Jha and Rajput.

They pointed out that one of the most shocking communication from the management to employees was that they would be paid only Rs. 15,000/- (Rs. Fifteen Thousand Only) on a monthly/rotational basis as part of the due salary of that month and that the rest of the salary would remain due and would be paid in due course of time, depending on the availability of funds. This was like the final straw on the camel’s back.The Editor-in-Chief himself draws a salary of around Rs. 2, 00,000/- (Rupees Two Lakh Only) and all the newly-appointed contractual employees by him are paid around Rs. 50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousand Only) plus.

Moreover, employees from centers other than New Delhi and employees who have retired or left but have not been paid their salaries or other legal dues, were excluded from payment of this paltry amount of Rs. 15,000/-. Only after the newly-formed All-India UNI Employees’ Front gave a call for a “Relay Hunger Strike” and “Dharna” from October 2, 2021 some of those employees were given Rs 10,000/- (Rs. Ten Thousand) each.

Rajout and Jha said that in such a situation the employees had been left with no choice but to launch a peaceful agitation to reclaim their dues from the institution for which they worked for their whole life.

—INDIA NEWS STREAM