| MUMBAI : The wage dispute between Indian TV producers and workers' unions appeared to have come to an end earlier this morning with the two disagreeing factions coming together to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in front of the media, terminating the 10-day-old strike which had brought the entire Hindi general entertainment channels into a state of programming paralysis. But late in the evening even as everyone was celebrating, came the news that the sound recordists' union was not too happy with the settlement that the FWICE had struck on their behalf with the four producers' bodies. Murmurs were that the sound recordists were threatening to go on a non-cooperation stir.
Their ire is directed against the fact that the accord gives them a monthly income of Rs 40,000 as against Rs 51,000 which they expected. At the time of writing, the sound recordists' union was scheduled to meet tomorrow in the morning at Film City to decide on their course of action.
FWICE general secretary Dinesh Chaturvedi, however, was sanguine that the federation will manage to convince the recordists' union to accept the terms that had been agreed. He said, "We have agreed on the MoU and will convince the sound recordists' union. The strike is definitely called off."
So when will the Hindi GECs start airing fresh content? Broadcasters had yet to agree on the date, though most admitted that new daily shows were unlikely to go on air until next week.
Zee TV business head Tarun Mehra said, "Even if the strike is called off, no GEC will air fresh content this week. We will all meet and decide on the day from when we will start airing fresh content together."
The broadcasters are also slated to meet the Advertisers Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to decide on the ad rates individually.
Said Madison World chairman Sam Balsara, "While advertisers have already got their inventory ready, I am sure advertisers and broadcasters together will amicably find a way and we would see regular flow of ads on GECs once everything is back on track"
In the meeting held earlier in the day between FWICE and the core committee of producers associations (IMPPA, Film and TV Producers Guild of India Ltd & AMPTPP), it was decided that daily wage workers will now be hired on a monthly basis, with shift timings being from 9 am to 10 pm. If workers are made to work after that, they will have to be paid overtime on an hourly basis. Additionally, producers will have to compulsory take out group insurance for all workers as per Insurance Companies prevalent policies.
"When we went into negotiations for a monthly salary structure, we factored in the 7.5 per cent hike that we were pressing for. The MoU is the beginning of a new dawn," said FWICE president Dharmesh Tiwari.
What this also means is that old agreements with TV workers promising annual increments have been scrapped.
The MoU also states that producers will have to give a month's notice before dismissing or discontinuing any workers. Besides, it has also directed the workers affiliated to the FWICE to get valid Pan cards and Bank accounts.
"This is a significant step towards transparency and corporatisation as workers will be paid by cheque and are being brought under a monthly salary structure. They will also have insurance cover," said the head of a leading production house |
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