9th wage board for journos formed

The government today constituted the 9th Wage Board to propose enhanced salary and other benefits of newsmen and employees in newspapers and news agencies.

"The government has formed the ninth Wage Board . . . comprising equal number of representatives of owners, journalists and employees/workers of the newspapers and news agencies and a chairman," an official circular said.

It said the 13-member body was formed in line with the Section 143 of Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 with Supreme Court Appellate Division's former judge Justice Mohammed Nizamul Huq as its chairman.

The owners who were made members of the body are: Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) president Matiur Rahman, vice-president AK

Azad, treasurer Motiur Rahman Chowdhury, members Mahfuz Anam and Tasmima Hossain and convener of Bangladesh Sangbadpatra Parishad (BSP) MG Kibria Chowdhury.

Journalists' representatives of the board are president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul and BFUJ secretary general Omar Faruk.

The newspaper employees and workers are being represented in the board by president of Bangladesh Newspaper Workers' Federation (BNWA) M Motiur Rahman

Talukder, BNWA secretary general M Khairul Islam, president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Newspaper Press Workers (BFUNPW) Mohammad Alamgir Hossian Khan and BFUNPW secretray general Mohammad Kamal Uddin.

According to the circular, information ministry's joint secretary M Mizan-Ul-Alam will perform as the secretary of the Ninth Wage Board.

The board has been asked to submit its full proposal to the authority concerned for enhancing the salary, allowances and fringe benefits of the journalists, general workers and press employees in next six months.

It said the board was asked to consider the issues of cost of living, newspapers capacity, comparative structures of salaries for services in government and private corporations while recommending the proposed enhancement.

But for the interim period until the formulation of the proposal, the board was entrusted with the task of recommending dearness allowances (DA).

The circular said the board was asked to formulate a set of recommendations for the workers in the electronic media reviewing the legal perspectives.