Newspaper employees’ unions accuse Hindustan Times owner Shobana Bhartia for callous mindset
MUMBAI: The newspaper employees’ unions in Mumbai accused Hindustan Times owner Shobana Bhartia of “callous” attitude to maximise the profits by mass termination of employees. Staging a protest in front of the Hindustan Times office in Mumbai, the unions alleged that the newspapers’ owners created the climate of fear and “paid news as well as fake news”
“This owner-created climate of fear in the media has also led to the unchecked proliferation of paid news as well as fake news. And this is a cause of concern for all citizens. All those who care for the flowering of democratic freedoms in the country should come together to ensure that the law of the land should be strictly implemented first in the Fourth Estate itself!,” said the memorandum submitted by unions to Shobana Bhartia.
The unions accused that the media owners are creating false theories on demonetization to terminate employees. “We do not accept your excuse that demonetization has forced you to take this step because, although it is only a three month old process, you have evaded the process of implementation for more than three years,” it said.
Accusing Hindustan Times and other newspaper owners for forcefully getting consent letters from employees that they don’t need Wage Board prescribed salaries, the Unions said this is nothing but sheer contempt of Supreme Court’s Orders.As no media will publish the press release of journalists’ unions, we are reproducing below the entire the entire press release which exposes the “callous” mindset of media owners…
