Hyderabad: A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking directions to all the owners, in charge of media houses to suspend all termination notices, forceful resignation of employees, wage reductions, forced unpaid leave, with immediate effect.
Reportedly, the PIL has been filed in the wake of recent developments where the media houses have terminated a lot of their employees, cut their salary or asked them to go on unpaid leave, citing loss due to lockdown as the reason.
National Alliance of Journalists, Delhi Union of Journalists and Brihan Mumbai Union of Journalists have filed the PIL through their President, General Secretary and Secretary respectively.
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The PIL contends that the media houses have terminated the employees in spite of the advisories issued by the government besides repeated appeals by the Prime Minister to not terminate anyone during the lockdown.
The organisations say that the action of the media houses is in violation of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and unmindful of the fact that in a lockdown of such incredible magnitude people can barely move out, leave alone job hunting.
Citing various recent examples, the PIL reads, "The retrenchment if employees/workers by establishments and employers in the media sector in the fashion described above is in violation of Section 25N and 250 of the Industrial Disputes Act,1947 and Section 16A of the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees(Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act,1955"
