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[email protected] ��������� ���� ���� �� ��� ������� � ��� ���� Former leader of FMRAI and national leader of CITU Comrade P K Ganguly passed away on 15 April 2015 night at his residence in New Delhi after prolonged illness. He was 82. Comrade Ganguly joined medical and sales representatives’ movement at Patna by end of 1960s and became the president of BSSR Union in 1972. Under his leadership three way struggles developed in FMRAI in early 1970s – fight against trade union reformism; fight against drug multinationals and for self reliance in drug production in the country; and for trade union rights of the medical and sales representatives. When the then leadership of FMRAI supported the emergency in the country, he fought against emergency rule. When they supported management-sponsored field staff association line, he fought against it and built up council movement. He fought against their disruption line in West Bengal and moved in different parts of the country to unify the field workers on struggle line. Ultimately, the then leadership was defeated in 1976 election of FMRAI with P K Ganguly becoming an office bearer. He was one of the main campaigners in anti-Glaxo movement during 1972-73 with clarion call of nationalization of all multinational drug firms and for self-reliance of the country in drug production which led to the revival of All India Chemical & Pharmaceutical Employees Federation in 1974. In fighting for trade union rights in the company – Suhrid Geigy of Sarabhai-Squibb group, where he had been working as a medical representative, he was dismissed from services in 1974. Since then he became a trade union whole-timer with associated hardship his family had to bear. Later, he was asked by CITU’s founder ������ ������� �� � ������Protesting against management’s gross unfair labour practices on various counts, breaking hitherto followed practices and demanding immediate holding purposeful negotiation on FMRAI’s pending charter of demands dated 26 March, 2014; responding to the call of FMRAI, 320 German Remedies field workers, including non-members, resorted to a day’s countrywide notified strike on 21 April and staged dharnas in front of company’s establishments. Expressing solidarity with striking field workers, council sub committees organized gate meetings at Guwahati, Patna, Cuttack, Jaipur, Zirakpur (Chandigarh), Indore, Durg, Cochin, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Madurai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Chennai and Stockist at Dindigul. Leaders of FMRAI, State units and German Remedies council addressed those gate meetings. In many dharna places the illegal settlement of 19 March was burnt. FMRAI’s council sub-committees also protested some Unfair Labour Practice by German Remedies �������������������������������� field managers who attempted to break the strike in some places. Management grossly violated various legal provisions and resorted to unfair labour practices which include signing settlement with FSA for all SPEs as if it is the ‘recognized union’ under MRTU & Pulp Act; incorporating non-wage issues including newer ‘conditions of service’ and converting them from time-rated workers to piece-rated workers in this illegal settlement as each piece of the MOU became part of employment contract; connecting the ‘memorandum of understanding’ as a part of the settlement and, thus, imposing a ‘standing order’ in absence of any registered standing order for the SPEs through this ‘wage settlement’ besides breaking the In a significant development, on April 2, the government of Assam declared minimum wage for the sales promotion employees (SPEs) working in the state, in addition to the pharmaceutical industry engaged in (i) cosmetics, soaps, household cleaners and disinfectants; (ii) readymade garments; (iii) soft drink manufacturing industries; (iv) biscuits and confectionaries; (v) Ayurvedic, Unani, and Homoeopathic medicines; (vi) automobiles including accessories and spare parts; (vii) surgical equipments, ar tificial prosthesis and diagnostics; (viii) electronics, computers including accessories and spares; (ix) electrical appliances and (x) paints and varnishes. With immediate effect, the minimum rate of wage for the SPEs was fixed at Rs 12,500 per month. Additionally, SPEs shall be entitled for variable dearness allowance (VDA) @75% over the rise and fall of Index point in the all India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) which will be calculated on the basis of change in CPI as on the date of effect of the fixed rate of minimum wages (i.e. April 2, 2015) and to be paid thereafter on six monthly basis. See page-2 At Kolkata (More Photos, Page 3) ������ ������������������ ������������� ���� !� MAY DAY GREETINGS The Secretariat of FMRAI greets all members, units and fraternal organizations on the occasion of May Day, 2015. We pledge to carry on our work in building unity of workers and toilers; and united struggle to resist attacks and advance. See page-2 See page-2 ����� �������� �� ! � ��������� � MAY 2015 � Sham Executives to Shame Medical Representatives Dateline 31 March, 2015; Hyderabad edition of Economic Times (ET) published a news captioned “Pharma firms like Pfizer and others replace medical representatives with new age executives” and concluding that “general medical representative may find it tough to explain to a doctor the complex and high- margin drugs they are pushing”. This article is part of drug corporates’ propaganda blitz for pushing patented drugs in Indian market. It is two-way propaganda of drug corporates following Indo-US pharma working group, formed by US President Barak Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Modi’s US visit in September, 2014. On one side there is attempt to replace ‘brand – generic (chemical names)’ division, as in India, by ‘patent-generic (off-patent)’ division of medicines, as in developed capitalist countries. In capitalist system the market competition necessitates brand promotion of a commodity. Drugs product cannot be promoted in India like other commodities through print or electronic media or internet. An exclusive law – The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 was created and still exists especially for brand promotion of drug companies products exclusively through medical representatives. Under this law, no ‘new age executive’ can promote pharmaceutical products. Suddenly, a high profile campaign is launched stating that there is no need of ‘brands’ in medicines i.e. there is no need of sales promotion of medicines which means that there is no need of market competition in medicines! Then why the private companies would manufacture medicines, that too in a stage when neoliberal economic policies are ruthlessly being implemented! Modiji, Amir Khan, Navin Patnaik et al, who do, dream and die for corporates; plus now-removed scam tainted health ministers of Madhya Pradesh and of Jammu & Kashmir allowed their photos and names to be used to remove medicines’ ‘brands’ to be replaced by ‘generics’ as their hearts are crying out for ‘poor’ people of India! No such sales promotion is necessary for patented medicine, it being a monopolized commodity. This attack on medical representatives is deep-rooted. Only in India medical and sales representatives are organised in professional-category union, FMRAI; conducted many struggles during more than five decades; created special law - The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act (SPE Act) - for themselves; got covered under all labour laws in the country, through SPE Act, after they were declared outside the purview of labour laws in May & Baker case by Supreme Court in 1956; brought state amendments in I. D. Act; brought them in industry schedules under Minimum Wages Act and fixed minimum wages for them; got legally notified working hours and timings in several states; formed national tripartite standing committee for them; etc. Neoliberal policy wants to destroy all these. This story in ET is a poorly prepared story for this, to put the medical representatives in bad light. It got mixed up with organised sector drug companies’ attempt to keep their sales promotion employees outside the reach of the union – be it by formation of sponsored field staff associations, by categorizing them as ‘M4 officers’ as in Pfizer as back as in mid-70s; or wide-spread use of differently named ‘executives’ as ‘sales officers’ beginning about two and half decades before. ‘New age executives’ indeed! Ill informed ET editor should know that the existing special law, the SPE Act, defines ‘Sales Promotion Employee’ as ‘“sales promotion employee” means any person by whatever name called (including an apprentice) employed or engaged in any establishment for hire or reward to do any work relating to promotion of sales or business, or both’. A sales promotion employee is a ‘worker’ under law by whatever name called – ‘medical representative’ or ‘new age executive’. ET story referred to Pfizer as a symbol of drug companies recruiting the ‘new age executives’. Unfortunately for them, there is another story on Pfizer as a symbol of deception and cheating the law in respect of these ‘new age executives’. On complaint of FMRAI, inspectors under SPE Act inspected the premises of Pfizer on 22 December, 2010 and got written undertaking from the management and inspection report, counter-signed by the management, declared that total number of ‘Sales Promotion Employees’ in Pfizer was 1985 on the day of inspection including 901 named as Professional Service Officers (PSOs), 180 named as Sr. PSOs, 786 name as Trainee PSOs, 88 named as Product Specialists (PS) and 30 named as Sr. PS in the company. These are the ‘new age executives’ in Pfizer. For violation of SPE Act in respect of these ‘new age executives’ by Pfizer, prosecution case, filed by the Government of Maharashtra in CJM court in Mumbai, is still continuing. ET story, however, is totally blank on ‘industry analysts’ or ‘professional executives’ giving details as to the supposed improvement in business volume and profit after engaging these “new age executives’. At least in Pfizer, the performance of these not-the-least-new-age executives in respect of turnover and profitability is far behind when compared with that of the ‘poor’ ‘general medical representatives’ who are working in Pfizer consequent to merger of Wyeth. This is the limitation of paid-news. existing practice of holding simultaneous negotiations, reaching to a common conclusion and signing separate but identical settlements with both the unions. (see FMRAI News, April, 2015) Subsequently FMRAI wrote to the management on 14 April expressing its preparedness to withdraw its strike decision on written communication from management that they would begin negotiation with FMRAI’s committee for the purpose of signing a wage settlement without linking it with MOU, as per past practice and without bringing any extraneous matter like the purported settlement which management declined to accept. Shortly, FMRAI is going to file complaint memorandum to the Maharashtra labour commissioner urging not to register the disputed settlement dated 19 March; effective intervention in the management’s unfair labour practice and admit FMRAI’s charter of demands dated 26 March, 2014 into conciliation / adjudication. from page-1 German Remedies Strike The secretariat of FMRAI congratulated the field workers of Assam for their determined struggle and the achievement. Such notification was issued under the relevant provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 following the recommendations of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board which were finalized in its meeting dated 23 September, 2014. The meeting was chaired by the labour minister of Assam and was par ticipated by labour commissioner and deputy labour commissioner of Assam; two representatives from IDMA; Assam CITU’s general secretary Deben Bhattacharya; CRU’s general secretary Bijan Das and its joint general secretary Rahul 01.05.2015 HR manager of USV found guilty The deputy general manager (HRD) of M/s USV Limited was found as “culprit” by the assistant labour commissioner, circle II, Visakhapatnam for not issuing appointment letter in Form A and referred the matter to the 2nd Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court to “punish the guilty as per law”. N Subramanyam, assistant labour commissioner, circle II, Visakhapatnam was appointed as inspector to examine a complaint filed by APMSRU against USV for not issuing appointment letter in Form A to the company’s seven sales promotion employees working at Visakhapatnam. During inspection, USV Limited was identified as an establishment under Section 2(A) of the SPE Act. On 27 September, 2014 it was also found by the assistant labour commissioner that the complaint of APMSRU was justified and USV did not issue appointment letter in Form A in gross violation of Section 5 and clause 22(1) of the SPE Act and Rules. Such violation was identified by the labour authority as punishable under Section 9 of the Act. ������������from page-1 Purakayastha. During the meeting of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board, Bijan Das and Rahul Purakayastha placed their views on behalf of the SPEs. They pointed out that the SPEs should be treated as highly skilled workers considering their nature of job. They were supported by Deben Bhattacharya. Finally, the labour commissioner concluded that the employers’ representatives were given enough opportunity being heard; that there were no procedural lapses on the part of the government in fixing the minimum wages for SPEs and came to the conclusion that the minimum rates of wages for SPEs ought to be Rs 12,500 per month. President Comrade B T Ranadive to shift to CITU centre in Delhi to undertake higher national responsibility. At all India centre of CITU Comrade P K Ganguly led many struggles. Comrade Ganguly was one of the national secretaries of CITU during 1983 – 2003 till his health could permit. He was the founder general secretary of Beedi Workers Federation (CITU); convener of All India Coordination Committee of Un- organised Sector Workers Unions (CITU); editor of CITU journals – Working Class and CITU Mazdoor. Comrade P K Ganguly left behind his son Arup and daughter Rupu with their respective families. FMRAI pays respectful homage to Comrade P K Ganguly, dips its flag and sends heart-felt condolence to his bereaved family members. �������� �� � ������from page-1 ����� ���� ���� �� ! � � " � " ! # ! � � � $ % # � & ' # ! � � Demanding of their jobs in Torrent; immediate release of salaries and reimbursement of expenses, the field workers of Elder Pharmaceuticals Limited throughout the country, irrespective of their divisions, resorted to a day’s hunger strike on 23 April. On the day, Elder field workers along with the council subcommittee members staged dharnas and demonstrations before Torrent establishments and submitted memoranda at Guwahati, !������������������ ������������(������������ Hyderabad, Jaipur, Patna, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Lucknow, Cuttack, Chennai and Kolkata. In Kolkata, the gate meeting before Torrent zonal office was addressed by FMRAI’s secretary Santanu Chatterjee; its treasurer Partha Rakshit; Elder all India convener and WBMSRU’s general secretary Sumahan Chakrabor ty; its secretary Sanjay Sen; Elder joint all India convener Basab Roychowdhury and others. WBMSRU’s vice president Sumit Roy presided. Elder Pharmaceuticals closed and sold two of its marketing divisions to Torrent. Under Section 25FFa, the jobs of all sales promotion employees of these divisions were supposed to be automatically transferred to Torrent with continuation of service and other legal rights. But, once the deal was finalized, Torrent management refused to take 153 Elder field workers. An undated letter was jointly issued by both the Elder and the Torrent managements in an attempt to usurp the legal rights of the field workers on job continuation in case of transfer of establishments by means of unfair labour practice and in violation of mutually agreed memorandum of understanding. This was a conspiracy of Elder-Torrent managements to end the field workers’ trade union and collective bargaining rights. Gate meeting at Kolkata Alkem field workers are once again gearing up for two days country-wide strike on 29-30 May in pursuance of their long pending demands including FMRAI’s charter of demands for the field workers of the company pending since December, 2013 and for resolution of victimization issues. On the first day of the strike, Alkem field workers and council subcommittees will meet the distributors at their respective headquarters and will hand over a memorandum for onward submission to the management. On the second day of the strike, all Alkem field workers will stage day long dharna in front of their offices / C&F agents at the state capitals. Prior to the strike, subunit Alkem council meeting shall be held for mobilization. FMRAI’s council subcommittees at every level will help and extend solidarity to the Alkem field workers. Alkem field workers have been patiently pursuing their demands which include settlement �������������������� ��)����� ���"�������������� Condolence Comrade Pulakesh Majumder, 54, a field worker working in Geno Pharmaceuticals died on 25 April. He was suffering from cancer and was under treatment in a hospital at Kolkata where he died. He left behind his old mother and wife. Comrade Pulakesh was the convener of WBMSRU’s Geno council and made contributions in field workers movement as well as in democratic movement. Large number of field workers, leaders of FMRAI and WBMSRU paid tributes when his mortal remains was brought to FMRAI office on the way to crematorium. FMRAI condoles the sad demise of Comrade Pulakesh Majumder and sends heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family. Comrade Ravi Chandel Comrade Ravi Chandel, 57, a field worker of Pfizer (erstwhile Wyeth) and member of MPMSRU’s Chhindwara unit died on 1 March. He was suffering from cancer. He left behind his wife, daughter and son. FMRAI mourns the sad demise of Comrade Ravi Chandel and sends heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family. of charter of demands dated 21 December, 2013; constitution of grievance redressal forum for the field workers under Section 9c of Industrial Disputes Act; appointment letters in Form A and compliance of leave rules and other provisions of SPE Act and resolution of pending victimization issues. In pursuance of their legitimate demands, Alkem field workers successfully resorted to various industrial actions including joint memorandum submission, nation-wide strikes, march to head office at Mumbai etc. Instead of acceding the just demands, management resorted to fresh victimization of north zone joint zonal convener through dismissal. Under the circumstances, all India council (AIC) meeting of Alkem, held on 17 February of this year decided to resort to further industrial actions including strikes. The AIC meeting decided to pursue the pending charter of demands legally also. Comrade Pulakesh Majumder APMSRU Ananthapur The annual general body meeting of APMSRU’s Ananthapur unit, held on 5 April was inaugurated by its general secretary A G Rajamohan. CPI(M)’s district secretary V Rambhupal Reddy greeted the par ticipants. Activity repor t placed by the unit secretary was discussed and adopted. The new unit committee was elected with G Narendra as president, A Rambhupal Reddy as secretary and C Sivaiah as treasurer. APMSRU’s secretary G Manohar along with its treasurer D Prasad was also present. KMSRA members of Palakkad district attending foundation stone laying ceremony of their own building on 21 March. A. K. Balan, MLA, laid the foundation stone. ������*������� ������� +���� At Vijayawada At Jaipur At Madurai ����� �������� �� ! Printed by D P Dubey, published by D P Dubey on behalf of Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India and printed at Satyajug Employees Co-operative Industrial Society Ltd. 13 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata-700 072 and published at 60-A, Charu Avenue Kolkata-700 033 EDITOR : D P DUBEY Registration No. WBENG/2001/6430 Postal Registration No. KOL RMS/106/2013-2015 � " � " ! # ! � � � ,��������� Durg MPMSRU Ratlam The annual general body meeting of Durg unit of MPMSRU, held on 19 April was attended by 94 members. Reports placed by unit secretary Vivek Satake and Sagar treasurer Lalit Dewangan were discussed and adopted. MPMSRU’s leader Anupam and steel employees’ union leaders S K Pali and S P Dey greeted the participants. 182 MPMSRU members of Ratlam unit including two of its satellite units namely Mandsaur and Neemuch attended their unit conference on 19 April. Reports placed by unit secretary Manish Dixit and treasurer Pankaj Mehta were adopted following discussions. A new unit committee was elected unanimously. Ashwini Mehta presided. 89 comrades attended the AGB meeting of Sagar unit, held on 26 April. Following discussion, both the reports of unit secretary, placed by Virendra Goswami and by treasurer Sanjay Soni were adopted unanimously. Meeting co-opted 5 unit committee members with vacancies. MPMSRU president S K Talukdar and state treasurer Anurag Saxena guided and addressed the meeting. UPMSRA Moradabad Lucknow 200 members of UPMSRA’s Lucknow unit attended in the AGB meeting, held on 19 April at Udyan Bhawan. Following hoisting organizational flag by unit president Arun Singh, the AGB meeting was formally inaugurated by state committee member Subrata Banerjee. Leaders of FMRAI and UPMSRA which include R.P.Singh, Rakesh Pandey addressed and greeted the meeting. CITU’s UP state president R.S.Bajpayee and other fraternal organization leaders also greeted the AGB meeting. Sarvesh Gupta was the state observer. Secretary and treasurer reports were adopted following discussion by members. Meeting elected 35 member executive committee with Arun Singh as president, Surojeet Mukherjee as secretary and Anwar Hafeez Siddiqui as treasurer. annual general body meeting on 19 April. UPMSRA’s vice president Arvind Tiwari and CITU’s district coordinator Vishnu Sharma addressed. Unit secretary Manoj Chaudhary and treasurer Sanjay Narang placed their reports which were adopted after vivid discussion. A 19 member new unit committee was elected and Nagesh Pathak, president; Manoj Chaudhary, secretary and Sanjay Narang, treasurer were re-elected.140 members of UPMSRA’s Moradabad unit attended their BSSRU Patna Sitamarhi 104 BSSRU members from three units of Patna namely Central, West and South attended their annual general body meeting on 2 April which was inaugurated by BSSRU’s vice president Sanjay Chatterjee. Reports placed by unit secretaries and treasurers were adopted after discussion. BSSRU’s general secretary Devashis Roy greeted. 70 members of BSSRU’s Sitamarhi unit attended their annual general body meeting on 19 Apr i l which was inaugurated by BSSRU’s leader Rakesh Kumar and addressed by its secretary R S Ray. Uni t secretar y Avinash Kumar and treasurer Alok Kumar placed their repor ts which were adopted fo l lowing discussion. Manoj Kumar presided. South Howrah-2 WBMSRU 105 WBMSRU members of south Howrah local committee- 2 attended their annual general body meeting, held at Comrade Samar Mukherjee Manch of Comrade Shyamaprasanna Bhattacharya Hall which was inaugurated by WBMSRU’s vice president Shyamal Majumdar. Local committee secretary Niloy Banerjee and treasurer Sandip Bose placed their reports which were discussed by 9 participants and were adopted. WBMSRU’s state committee member Partha Banerjee addressed. Rajib Choudhury presided.More News, See page-3