Journalist leaders today (3 September) demanded the immediate formation of the 10th Wage Board and declaration of an interim dearness allowance for media workers and newspaper employees.
They made the demand at a rally organised by the Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) in front of the Jatiya Press Club, reports BSS.
BFUJ Secretary General Muhammed Kader Gani Chowdhury addressed the rally as chief guest, while DUJ President Md Shahidul Islam presided. DUJ Joint General Secretary Didarul Alam Didar conducted the programme.
Speakers said journalists were facing an acute financial crisis amid rising prices of essential goods and living costs. Many media outlets were yet to implement the Ninth Wage Board Award, announced in 2019, citing legal and administrative complications, they said.
Kader Gani said the government had recently increased salaries of government employees by 100% to 142%, and journalists should receive a similar adjustment through the immediate announcement and implementation of the 10th Wage Board.
“Senior journalists are dying, but they cannot even pay their hospital bills,” he said, adding that some long-serving journalists could not afford ambulance fares to take deceased colleagues’ bodies to their village homes.
He said journalists generally received only one weekly day off, compared with two for government employees, and that journalists’ pay scales had historically been kept higher to reflect such differences.
The BFUJ leader urged the prime minister and the ministries of information and finance to announce the 10th Wage Board without delay and called on media owners to ensure payment of salaries under the Wage Board.
Referring to the 39-point demand submitted by BFUJ and DUJ, he said, “No Wage Board, No Media” was their foremost demand, warning that journalists would take to the streets if media owners continued to violate Wage Board provisions.
DUJ General Secretary Khurshid Alam, Dhaka Reporters Unity President Abu Saleh Akon, former DRU President Mursalin Nomani and other journalist leaders also addressed the rally.
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