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| STRUGGLE FOR CONSTITUTION OF WAGE BOARD |
The Indian Journalists Union spear headed the movement for the constitution of the wage board. Its call for a nation-wide strike on August 4, 1992 got a grand response. It was in response to this agitation that the Government promised to set up a new wage board. The then Union Labour Minister P A Sangma called a meeting of the Journalists Unions, including the IJU, to discuss the issue on August 24, 1992. addressing the IJU National Executive Committee at New Delhi, on February 19, 1993, the then Union Information and Broadcasting Minister K P Singhdeo for the first time publicly announced that the proposal to set a new wage board was being considered by the Union cabinet. On March 13, 1993 , the IJU observed "Black Day" throughout the country protesting against the delay in setting up the wage board.
On December 23, 1993, 52 members of the Parliament submitted a joint letter to then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao urging him to set the wage board at an early age. The signatories included Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, Sikander Bakht, S R Bommai, Sharad Yadav, Ramvilas Paswan, Rabi Ray, George Fernandeis, Nirmal Kant Chatterjee, K A Babby, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Ramesh Chennithala, Veer Narayan Swami and Mrs. Geeta Mukherjee. These members of Parliament in their joint letter to Mr. Narasimha Rao, have clearly stated that they were supporting the demand of IJU and its affiliated State Unions for setting up the wage board. During this period the IJU and its affiliated State Unions continuously agitated for its demand. On February 24, 1994, a massive demonstration was held before the Parliament.
The IJU again called for a strike on February 28 1994,which was a great success inspite of the declared opposition by the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) and National Union of Journalists - India (NUJI). The magnificent success of the strike played a big role in expediting the formation the new wage board and just two days after the strike, the Union Cabinet decided to set up a new wage board for Working Journalists and non-Journalists newspaper and news agencies employees.
Justice R K Manisana Singh, former Chief Justice Guwahati High Court was appointed Chairman of the Boards, and commenced functioning on and from April 3 1995.
The board however, took a very long time in finalizing even its tentative proposals and ultimately presented its final report to the Government of India on July 25, 2000.And the recommendations were notified by the Government of India in the Extraordinary Gazette of India with minor modification son 5th and 15th December 2000.