MEDIA BODIES WELCOME COURT ORDERS THAT UPHOLD JOURNALISTS’ RIGHTS
The decision of a labour court in Delhi to order the newspaper Navbharat to pay gratuity to senior journalist Anil Dubey is welcomed by the Press Club of India and Delhi Union of Journalists. In a statement issued in New Delhi today the Presidents of Press Club of India and DUJ Sujata Madhok said that Dubey, who worked as a Special Correspondent in the daily’s Delhi Bureau for 17 years, was suddenly fired in 2022, without even a termination letter. He was paid his salary but denied gratuity. Dubey’s case highlights the frequent denial of full dues by media managements.
In most cases such denial of dues goes unchallenged. We congratulate Dubey for courageously fighting in court for his unpaid dues. His two-year battle has paid off said Gautam Lahiri and Sujata Madhok in a joint statement.
On February 19, 2025 the Assistant Labour Commissioner (Central), Delhi ordered Navbharat to pay Rs 98,076 gratuity along with 10% annual interest to Dubey. Not paying full dues is a practice among many media
establishments. In Dubey’s matter the management simply ignored most court notices, leading to deliberate delay until finally Dubey secured an ex parte order in his favour.
Not just in Navbharat, there have been widespread concerns among journalists over underpayment, not calculating Dearness Allowance and Provident Fund properly, delay in remittances of PF and Tax Deducted at Source etc. There are cases in several states against media owners for denying
proper dues for their employees, when they leave or are fired.
If the Centre implements the four Labour Codes, this hire and fire mechanism will be further strengthened emphasised the PCI and DUJ leaders.
Expressing their concern over this house gh handedness towards the veteran journalists the PCI and DUJ statement added that unfortunately Dubey’s case is not exceptional. Many older journalists find themselves shortchanged come retirement. Few have the financial resources to fight long court battles and are forced to simply accept what employers are ‘benevolent enough’ to give them.
This happens even in
organisations that are financially successful. Recently, similar complaints have come in from
journalists working in TV channels – television is an organized sector but lacks trade unions which can fight for employees’ rights said the media organisation’s statement.
In the case of media organisations that face bankruptcy, employees’ dues usually remain unpaid.
Highlighting the plight of the once popular news sagency’ as case the PCI chief KHiri said that the newsagency UNI is an unfortunate case in point with employees having filed claims of over 100 crores including claims for unpaid salaries, provident fund and gratuity. A resolution of the issue seems to be in the offing but only a quarter of that substantial sum is likely to be paid.
As journalists’ unions and other media bodies we urge more journalists to fight for unpaid dues and other rights emphasised the PCI and DUJ leaders.
