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60-A Charu Avenue • Kolkata-700 033 • Phone : (033)24242862 • Fax : (033)24244943 • www.fmrai.org • E-mail : fmrainews@gmail.com, fmrainews@indiatimes.com

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Reception committee consisting of 178members representing various trade union andmass organizations; eminent personalitiesfrom different walks of society with Dr. SuryaKanta Misra, leader of the Opposition in WestBengal Assembly, as chairperson, Rabin Debas working chairman, Sumahan Chakrabortyas general secretary and Sisir Saha astreasurer for 23rd FMRAI’s conference in itsgolden jubilee year was formed in presenceof large number of WBMSRU members on 18June at Birendra Mancha, Kolkata.

Leaders of various trade unions, massorganizations, distinguished personalities form

different sphere of the society attended the meeting. Former MP MaliniBhattacharya, AITUC leader Suhash Haldar, Samir Bhattacharjee of12 July Committee, leader of sales executive association, Ashis Bagchi;

Reception Committee Formed

23rd FMRAI CONFERENCEIN GOLDEN JUBILEE YEAR

On 25 June, Government of Uttar Pradesh issued order to file prosecutioncases against USV Limited for enforcing mobile reporting on salespromotion employees without giving notice under section 9A of I. D. Act.

Additional LabourCommissioner of U. P. PradeepSrivastva issued order no. 1534-38/I.R.D.-12 dated 25 June, 2012giving permission to FMRAI’sUttar Pradesh state unit UPMSRAto file prosecution cases beforechief judicial magistrates indistricts against S. Bhutani,president- sales; R. Balgi, seniorVP- HR and Hemant Surve,assistant general manager-HR ofUSV Limited under Section 29 ofIndustrial Disputes Act forchanging the conditions ofservice of the sales promotionemployees of the Company byenforcing mobile reportingwithout giving notice as requiredunder section 9A of the Act. Thesection provides upto six monthsimprisonment as penalty.

On 4 July, 2011, on behalf ofUPMSRA, its joint secretaryArvind Tiwari registeredcomplaint against USV Limited of

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breach of settlements /agreements, signed withFMRAI’s negotiating committee /grievance committee on behalf ofall sales promotion employees ofthe Company, in respect ofservice conditions including dailyfield work reporting system.Management imposed mobilereporting system without issuingnotice for intended change asrequired under Section 9A of I.D.Act and coerced, threatened andvictimized the field workersincluding wage cuts on allegedground of non-compliance ofmanagement’s illegal and unjustorder.

The Additional LabourCommissioner verified the factsand documents, particularlymanagement’s circulars of 27June, 2011 that reporting throughmobile phone was mandatoryfrom 15 July, 2011 onwards; andpassed an order for maintaining

status quo as far as reportingsystem was concerned. But, themanagement of USV not onlyignored the Government’s orderbut also issued another circulardated 11 June, 2012 directing allfield workers to send reportsthrough mobile only otherwisetheir field working would not betaken into cognizance and theirwages would be cut and theirexpense statements would not bereimbursed.

UPMSRA moved anapplication on 5 June, 2012requesting the Governmentauthorities to prosecute or grantpermission to prosecute the USVmanagement. After hearing boththe parties and seeing therelevant documents, AdditionalLabour Commissioner passedorder granting permission toUPMSRA to file prosecutioncases against named persons inUSV management.

DNA, Mumbai in its 7 Juneedition published that KEMHospital, Mumbai banned theentry of medical representativesin the hospital following a stingoperation by Zee Businessshowing a doctor accepting cash/cash card from a medicalrepresentative of Mumbai baseddrug company, Macleod Pharma.After the episode of SatyamevJayate by Amir Khan in Star Plusand now the KEM scandal,

Viswanathan releasinglogo. Seen Rabin Dev.

FMRAI’s president R Viswanathan,general secretary D. P. Dubey,WBMSRU president Rabin Deb, itsgeneral secretary SumahanChakraborty, among others, spoke onthis occasion. Eminent doctors, leadersof AIDWA and DYFI were also presentin the meeting.

The official logo of 23rd FMRAI’sconference in its golden jubilee yearwas released by FMRAI’s president, R.Viswanathan which he handed over toworking chairman of the receptioncommittee, Rabin Deb.

From : Hitavada, 28 June, 2012

Recent attacks on Medical Representatives

Protest day on 10 Julyattempt is being made to bringMedical Representatives underpublic scrutiny as if they arecarrying huge cash in their bagsto pay to doctors and turn a blindeye on the huge corporatecorruptions perpetrated by thepharma companies by way of‘pay for prescription’ and ‘pay fortrade’. FMRAI has takenimmediate public stand on thesetwo issues through FMRAI Newsin June, 2012 issue and a press

statement issued by its jointgeneral secretary, K.B. Kadamon 7 June.

The secretariat of FMRAI inits meeting held at Kolkata during17-18 June identified the issuesinvolved are corruption by drugcompanies, Centralgovernment’s policiesresponsible for high price ofmedicines and concerted attackon the ‘right to work’ through

See page-2

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Resist attack on right towork of field workers

In recent times, Medical Representative as a profession isincreasingly coming under attacks from hospital administrations,government, media and a section in the society. MedicalRepresentatives’ entry in hospitals are being banned / restricted byCGHS and several state governments and corporations orders.

The 27 May episode of Styameva Jayate programme of StarPlus by actor-turned-anchor Amir Khan, branded MedicalRepresentatives as ‘agents’ of drug companies and main persons tobribe the doctors for prescription on behalf of the companies. Healso advocated, in the same episode, that high prices of medicinesare due to branded products and generic version will reduce pricesautomatically. Encouraged by this, sting operation by Zee Businessexposed recently in KEM hospital, Mumbai, found doctor receivingcash / cash card for prescription from pharma company. AfterSatyameva Jayate and KEM scandal, Medical Representatives havecome under public scrutiny as if they are carrying huge cash in theirbags to pay to doctors. But, all are silent or choose to remain mutespectator in respect of huge corporate corruptions perpetrated bythe drug companies by way of ‘pay for prescription’ and ‘pay fortrade’ and on the government’s policy to allow increase of drugprices, not because of generic or brand issues. Therefore, instead ofbanning or putting restriction on the entry of Medical Representative,there is a need to examine the issues objectively.

In the name of sales closing every month, most of the well knowndrug companies, including big multinationals, are raising falseinvoices in the name of hospitals / institutions /nursing homes withouttheir knowledge and offload these goods in the market through‘hawkers’, creating parallel black market. Despite FMRAI’s raisingdemand of investigation of records of the company, central and statedrug control administration and ministries of health are reluctant tofind out facts for obvious reasons and ‘pay for trade’ by the companies,as their business policy, continued unabated. Banning /restricting theentry of Medical Representatives in the hospitals / institutions is notthe solution of the widespread corruption in drug business.

Every year, drug companies are spending huge amount of moneyin the name of CMEs, seminars, foreign trip to doctors and theirfamily members, in fun and frolics etc. let lone costly compliments inolder days like cars, air conditioners, now added cash cards, in grossviolation of Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisement) Act and despite the so called ‘Code ofEthics’ of some of the companies. Medical representatives and theirorganization, FMRAI, have been in forefront in exposing the menaceof ‘pay for prescription’ indulged in by drug companies. Yet, thegovernment is reluctant to take any action against the bribe givercompanies.

As far as spiraling prices of medicines are concerned, FMRAI hasbeen demanding to bring all items in the National List of EssentialMedicines (NLEM) under cost-based price control as applicable to the‘list of essential drugs’ under DPCO, 1995 ensuring their availabilitythrough compulsory manufacturing and through PSUs and resortedto agitations including strike in pursuance of that. Why not the samecriterion of bringing price control as that of 74 bulk drugs and theirformulations as under DPCO, 1995 be urgently applied to all 354medicines in NLEM? It is not brand or generic, responsible for highprice of medicines, it is the government’s policy responsible for highprice. A smoke screen is sought to be created projecting ‘generics’ aspanacea against high price of medicines.

Section 15 of Drugs and Magic Remedies (ObjectionableAdvertisements) Act, 1954 was enforced by Central Government bygazette notification on 29 May, 1967 states, “Medical Literaturesdistributed by medical detailers appointed by manufacturers,importers or distributors of drugs, duly licensed under Drugs andCosmetics Act, 1940 (23 0f 1940) and the Rules thereunder.” And that“The distribution of such literature is confined only to the registeredmedical practitioners, hospitals, dispensaries, medical and researchinstitutions, and Chemists and Druggists or pharmacies duly licensedunder the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules.”

‘Medical detailers’ as mention above, have to be appointed inprescribed form under Section 5 of the Sales Promotion Employees(Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 and the Rules made thereunder.Only a sales promotion employee having legally valid appointmentletter in Form-‘A’ of SPE Act is entitled to undertake sales promotionwork. Banning or restricting the entry of Medical Representatives,therefore, tantamount to attack on their right to work which will beopposed by 1.5 lakh field workers of the country and theirorganization, FMRAI.

Under this background, the Secretariat of FMRAI decided tolaunch public campaign, observe 10 July as countrywide protestday and strike in future against attack on the Medical Representativeson their right to work.

On 31 May, Garhwal region assistant labourcommissioner at Dehradun, directed TorrentPharmaceuticals to pay the deducted wages toDehradun based sales promotion employee of theCompany, Ashok Kumar Verma, on the dispute raisedby him.

On resuming duties after availing ten days leave inJanuary this year, Ashok Kumar Verma found hiselectronic reporting portal was blocked by

����������� ������������management. Contention of the management was thatdespite he was on leave, he is supposed to report everyday ‘on leave’, as per norms of the Company, which hedid not. Despite repeated request, management did notopen his reporting portal and, thereby imposed lock outon his work and deducted ten days wage from his salaryagainst which Ashok Kumar Verma raised dispute forrecovery of his deducted wages. Conciliation meetingstook place on 19 and 31 May.

On 8 June, the deputy commissioner of labour-I,Hyderabad issued notice (no. B/990/2010) to ZydusCadila to produce five statutory records within ten daysfrom receipt of the notice including that of Appointmentletters in Form-A, register of sales promotion employeein Form-B, service book in Form-C, register of servicebooks in Form-D and leave record in Form-E, asrequired under Sales PromotionEmployees(Conditions of Service)Act, 1976 and itsRules failing which ‘it will be deemed that themanagement has no information to furnish in this regard

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�������� ��������compelling further legal action as per law’.

Earlier, in 2010, additional chief metropolitanmagistrate, Nampally, Hyderabad prosecuted themanagement (STC No. 818 of 2010) for non-productionof the record and the Company had to pay the penaltyand was further directed to produce the recordssubsequently for verification. A notice was again sent tomanagement on 31 December, 2011. Instead ofproducing the relevant records, management sent someinformation through e-mail which was ‘insufficient’ and,hence, this notice of 8 June.

banning / restrictions on the field workers. The meeting further decided to launch massive public campaignthrough handbill, street corner meetings etc. and to observe national protest day on 10 July followed by countrywidestrike in August.

On the basis of complaint of KMSRA tocommissioner of police, Ernakulam town north policeregistered an FIR (no. 765) on 1 May under Section154 Cr.PC for violation of Section 66 A ( c ) of theInformation Technology Act, 2000.

Vipindas C, a field worker of Himalaya Drug, basedat Pallakad, received a letter from the Companyreported to have called on doctors on 15 August, beinga national holiday. Vipindas was taken aback andreplied that he did not report any doctor but reported‘independence day’, as per his record and managementclosed the issue. Being skeptical on the development,while scrutinizing past reports, he found that his reports

������ ��������������������of 4, 5 and 15 July were also edited and 15 July wasshown as ‘independence day’ and all these editing wasdone on 17 August which is not possible for Vipindas asper the software for e-reporting. KMSRA lodged acomplaint on 10 November, 2011 before commissionerof police, Ernakulam for referring the matter to CyberCell for investigation.

Cyber Cell, after investigation of the matter foundthat the reporting site of Vipindas was illegaly accessedtwice, outside Kerala and, accordingly, asked theErnakulam Town North police to register the case forconfiscation of the particular computers from where itwas accessed illegally and arrest of the culprit / culprits.

... attacks on Medical Representativesfrom page-1

The Federation of Medical & Sales RepresentativesAssociations of India (FMRAI) and its affiliated stateunion Maharashtra Sales & Medical RepresentativesAssociation (MSMRA) condemns the drug companieswho are bribing the medical practitioners by ‘pay forprescription’, by sponsoring foreign trips and byorganizing lavish parties in the name of scientificsessions (CMEs). In fact, FMRAI is one of the foremostorganizations which is exposing and fighting againstthese misdeeds of drug companies. Its monthly journal– FMRAI News – is exposing these regularly throughdocumentation and evidence.

FMRAI also submitted petition before the LokSabha Committee of Petitions to institute enquiry oncorrupt practices of drug companies and assured theirmembers’ evidences in respect of unfair marketingand trade practices of drug companies. FMRAI alsodemanded CBI enquiry in these malpractices.

Sales promotion employees of drug industry,generally known as Medical Representatives, comeunder special labour law known as ‘Sales PromotionEmployees (Conditions of Service) Act’ and alsounder other labour laws. Yet drug companies refusedto implement the provisions of the Act to keep themout of union’s protection and misuse their services aswas exposed by Zee Business in a string operation.

In the tripartite meeting called by the MaharashtraState Labour Minister, FMRAI demanded strictenforcement of law and till compliance, to ordersuspension of sales promotion by drug companies.The matter has been referred to the department oflaw for opinion.

The matter has become serious and governmentmust act urgently to enforce law and ensure legalprotection to the medical representatives against theirmisuse and exploitation by drug companies.

Banning the entry of Medical Representatives fromentering KEM hospital is not the solution of thewidespread corruption in drug business. On thecontrary, it tars the image of about 1.5 lakhs medicalrepresentatives in the country, who are recognized asworkers in law, and prevents their normal work andlivelihood as workers with the registered medicalpractitioner, hospitals and medical institutions aspermitted under section 16(2)(b) read with 14(c) ofDrugs and Magic Remedies (ObjectionableAdvertisements) Act.

The policy of the central government itself isresponsible for escalating and differential prices ofsame medicines with higher tax with each increase inretail prices. It has nothing to do with branded orgeneric medicines. As Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Health in their report pointed out,conversion from brand to generic medicines may leadto choice to select from doctors to traders. TheGovernment virtually made Drug Prices (Control) Orderunder Essential Commodities Act redundant allowingdrug companies to hugely increase drug prices withsuper profits which they use in bribing the doctors andtrade. Medical Representatives as workers are cryingfor legal protection of job and normal work.

(K. B. Kadam)Joint General Secretary, FMRAI

Press Statement

Prosecute drug companies;Government control all drug prices

Mumbai, 7th June, 2012

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Rs. 240. Out of the total benefits,42% comes under wage part.

S. S. Sengupta, president;Satish Dandekar, VP(sales andmarketing) and gm-HR, AnandaGawde on behalf of managementand on behalf of FMRAI, GRL allIndia committee comprising ofSantanu Chatterjee, K. R. Rao,Ashim Ghosal, Supriyo Das,

... German Remedies Biswaroop Banerjee, N. S.Lamba, Sandeep Chaturvedi, K.Subramanian, Benny M.Verghese Sanjeev Mishrasigned the agreement.

Earlier, German Remedies AllIndia council meeting, held atDelhi on 9 May, approved theunderstanding arrived at.

Separately, anunderstanding on day to daywork input was also signed onthe same day.

from page-4

Alembic Zonal Conventionsand Dharna

1094 Alembic field workers ofsouth, east and west zone tookcasual leave en masse and 489of them sat in dharna infront ofcompany’s establishments atChennai, Kolkata and Nagpur.The programme was inpursuance of 8 point demandsincluding the demands forappointment letters to all in Form-A of SPE Act; for settlement of thepending charter of demands; forconstitution of grievancecommittee for the field workersunder Industrial Disputes(Amendment) Act, 2010; forrevocation of transfer of R KSrivastava, president of UPMSRAand Alembic council leader;against illegal locking of mobilereporting portal therebyimposing illegal lock out on field

work and consequent illegalwage cuts and on otherdemands. Zonal conventions ofAlembic field workers were heldon the previous day which wereaddressed by FMRAI leadersincluding president RViswanathan, vice president D.M Deshpande, secretarySantanu Chatterjee, otherworking committeemembers;Alembic councilleaders including L. S. Bharavi,S. R. Nalwade, N P Shukla andother leaders of state units.

South zone convention washeld on 3 June at TNMSRA officeat TNMSRA office, Chennai, eastzone on 10 June at ShramikBhawan, Kolkata and west zoneon 17 June at A.K.GopalanBhavan, Nagpur.

Dharna at Nagpur

Finally, tripartite wagesettlement between DraktInternational and FMRAI and afield staff union was signed forabout 62 field workers on 11 Junein presence of A K Bhattacharya,additional labour commissioner,West Bengal. Drakt Internationalis a small scale sectorpharmaceutical company inKolkata having marketingoperation in east zone.

After bipartite negotiation andsigning settlement with FMRAI forall field workers of the company;management wrote to theadditional labour commissioner forsigning a separate settlementwith the minority field staffassociation with better offer.FMRAI protested against thisattempt of the management and

With better offer, re-negotiatedsettlement in Drakt International

demanded re negotiation andsettlement with higher benefits asoffered through the labourcommissioner in writing.Ultimately, at the intervention ofthe labour commissioner, allparties were called andsettlement was signed, again withFMRAI, with better financial offer.

It may be recalled that firstwage settlement was signedbetween the company andFMRAI in 2005 and identicalsettlement was signed with fieldstaff association also. However,this time management wanted togive better offer to minority unionby involving additional labourcommissioner which they couldnot succeed as FMRAI pursuedfor re negotiation and settlementwith equal benefits.

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conference. The conference alsounanimously adoptedresolutions on photo ID card forall sales promotion employees,for achieving 5000 membershipduring 2012, on 8 hours work,demanding minimum wages forall SPEs, six months maternityleave for women workers and

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demanding abolition of salesclosing meetings. A rally wastaken out culminating into apublic meeting which wasaddressed by various tradeunion leaders.

The conference elected a 37member state committee withSubir Talukder as president; N P

Shukla, V S Rawal, SantoshDoneria and Anjana Dixit as vicepresidents; Shailendra Sharmaas general secretary; NaveenGupta and Salil Shukla as jointgeneral secretaries; SandeepChaturvedi, Rajiv Tyagrajan,Prakash Narayan Singh, SameerMoghe and Devroop Biswas assecretaries and Anurag Saxenaas treasurer.

141 members from Ratlam,Mandasaur and Neemuchattended 22nd annual generalbody meeting of MPMSRU’sRatlam unit on 13 May. Stategeneral secretary ShailendraSharma and treasurer AnuragSaxena addressed theparticipants. Secretary’s andtreasurer’s reports were adoptedunanimously after discussion andreplies. The meeting electedAshwini Sharma as president, G.S. Rawat as vice president,Manish Dixit as secretary, Utsav

���� ��� ����Dubey and Mithun Solaki as jointsecretaries and Pankaj Mehta astreasurer and 8 committeemembers.

100 members of MPMSRU’sJabalpur unit participated in theunit conference at Shri Radhahotel on 3 June inaugurated byCITU’s district secretary G NKumar who hailed the role ofMPMSRU and FMRAI andstressed the need of developingunited workers movement. NChakraborty, leader of AIIEA alsoaddressed the conference. S K

Soni placed secretary’s andAshish Moitra treasurer’s reports.Both the reports were adoptedunanimously after discussion bymembers. FMRAI’s generalcouncil member RajeevThyagrajan, Anjana Dixit, SanjayTiwari and MPMSRU foundermembers R N Ghosh and P R Deaddressed the conference.

The conference unanimouslyelected Sanjay Tiwari aspresident, Bhanu Soni assecretary and Asish Moitra astreasurer of the unit.

About two months back, Md. Abdul Ghani, amember of Khammam unit of APMSRU, while

ANDHRA PRADESH

$%����&�#���'��(��������������returning from work in the night, fell down in anopen manhole and died on the spot. Next day fieldworkers of Khammam unit struck work and alongwith CITU staged dharna and demonstration beforemunicipal office. The special officer on duty of themunicipal office assured to provide job to the wifeof Late Ghani, would bear the treatment cost of theirson who is suffering from critical illness, educationalexpenditure of the elder daughter and a plot of landto construct house.

APMSRU state centre contributed Rs. 50,000and Khammam unit members contributed Rs.21,000 which were handed over to the wife of lateGhani in the June unit general body meeting.

APMSRU handing over the cheque

KSM&SRA35 members of Bengaluru donated blood in the

camp organized jointly with Jayadeva Institute ofCardiovascular Sciences on 17 June during flagreceiving ceremony. Former general secretary ofKSM&SRA Vajendra Kulkarni received the flagwhile Gram Panchayat Employees Union presidentMaruti Manpade inaugurated the programme.Jayadeva Hospital’s Blood Bank chief Dr.Umagreeted the members and KSM&SRA’s generalsecretary A Jayaganesh guided the programme.Belgaum unit received flag on 24 June with SureshAngadi MP inaugurating the programme as chiefguest. KSM&SRA’s vice president Srinivas Waikeraddressed the members. Mandya unit receivedFMRAI flag from Mysore unit on 16 June and 70members of the unit participated in a bike rallyproceeding to Mandya Medical College for a blood

FMRAI’s flag rallyKMSRA

As a part of golden jubileecelebration, FMRAI flag wasreceived by KMSRA’s Thrissurdistrict unit on 4 June by holdinga public meeting at KeralaSahithya Academy Hall joined by

large number of KMSRAmembers and leaders of variousfraternal unions. KMSRA’ssecretary K Venugopalinaugurated the meeting, vicepresident U Sathish Kumarguided, district secretaryAnuroop Raja received the flag

from Palakkad unit andwelcomed participants anddistrict president K V Sugathanpresided. KMSRA’s secretary KO Vincent handed over FMRAI’sflag to Idukki district presidentVinu Mathew for its onwardjourney through district units.

donation camp. 40 members of the unit donatedblood during the occasion. Many doctors greetedthem and wished success of FMRAI andKSM&SRA’s movements.

Blood donation at Mandya

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50 members of RMSRU’sJodhpur unit participated in a rallyon 20 May organized jointly withlocal IMA, associations of private

and gynae doctors and lions clubagainst female foeticide andgender inequality.

TNMSRA’s foundation daywas observed by its Salem unitin a special meeting on 8 Mayattended by 90 members. Onthis occasion, CITU’s districtsecretary Uday Kumardistributed union’s photo IDcard.

Protest against petrol price hikeMSMRA’s Ahmednagar unit members participated in a bi-cycle

rally and staged a demonstration in front of the collectorate protestingpetrol price hike. A memorandum was submitted to the deputycollector. Local AITUC leader joined the rally and demonstration as amark of solidarity. KMSRA’s Malappuram district committee organizeda protest rally at Perinthalmanna sub unit against petrol price hike.

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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 SatyajugEmployees 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/106/2010-2012��� � !"#!

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In order to develop uniformunderstanding based oncommon features of eachgroup with emphasis on councilnetworking and expansion ofcouncil, 240 all India councilcommittee members of 36councils, in two daysseparately, participatedworkshop on council andrelated movements at BTRBhawan, Delhi on 6 and 8 May.

Workshop on Council & RelatedMovement at Delhi

Meyer Organics, Ozone, Ind Swift, BharatSerum, Hetero Genx and RanbaxyRespiratory who are grouped together toestablish trade union, collective bargainingand legal rights attended the workshop. Outof these 18 councils, charter of demands arepending in Alembic, Alkem, Micro, IPCA,Indoco-Warren, Intas, AFD, ICPA andMacleods. In rest of the companies, charterof demands will be submitted soon, themeeting further decided.

The workshop of 8 May was attendedby the committee members of 18 all Indiacouncils where three rights are alreadyestablished namely Albert David, BSN,Biochem, Dey’s, Elder, Franco Indian,Geno, TTK, Lupin, Khandelwal, GermanRemedies, Johnson & Johnson, Ranbaxy,Svizera, Stadmed, USV, Wallace and WinMedicare.

Following the workshop, some of thecouncils hold their all India meetings on thefollowing days. On both the days, A. K.Banerjee, all India council sub-committeeconvener placed the note on which leadersof each council contributed and shared theirexperiences. The first day workshop wasconcluded by FMRAI secretary SantanuChatterjee and the worksop of 8 May wasconcluded by president R. Viswanathan.Nine councils, participated the workshopon 6 May, where charter of demands arepending since long suggested to pursuelegally and to resort to one day strike infuture in pursuance of their pending charterof demands.

On 6 May, the all India committeemembers of 18 councils namely Alembic,Alkem, Micro, IPCA, Indoco- Warren, Intas,AFD, ICPA, Himalaya, Macleods, JBCPL,

153 out of total 202 eligible delegatesfrom different parts of the country met inthe first All India Conference of WallaceCouncil, held during 9-10 June at Mumbai.The conference adopted a resolutionreaffirming to strengthen and advancethree decades old bilateral industrialrelationship and appreciates thecommunication of the management tochange the software in the electronicreporting system.

All India Conference of Wallace CouncilWhile inaugurating the

conference, FMRAI’s president RViswanathan called upon Wallacefield workers for expansion ofcouncil and consolidate thecouncil organization in thebackdrop of Bhopal GCMresolution of reversal ofrestructuring policy. Others whospoke on this occasion include

FMRAI’s vice presidents DeepakBhattacharjee and D. M. Despande andjoint general secretary K. B. Kadam.

31 delegates participated on the reportplaced by Wallace all India convener,Sanjay Chatterjee. After reply, the reportwas adopted unanimously.

A two member presidium consisting ofzonal conveners M. S. Som and S. C. Awasthiconducted the proceeding of the conference.R. Viswanathan concluded the conference.

R Viswanathan addressing the conference

11th wage agreement withFMRAI and German Remedieswas signed on 22 June in thehead office, Mumbai. Theagreement is for three years,effective from 1 April, 2011 andwill remain in operation till 31March, 2014.

The agreement will derivean average increase of Rs 3321with minimum increase of Rs.2002 and Rs. 8600 being themaximum, per medicalrepresentative per month. Allslabs of allowances of

Wage Agreement in German Remedies

additional fixed dearness, house rent, kit,education, leave travel and medical havebeen upwardly improved based on serviceseniority. All components of daily

allowances increased by Rs. 15 therebymaking headquarter to Rs. 185, ex-headquarter to Rs. 215 and outstation to

(L to R) Ananda Gawde, Supriyo Das, K. R. Rao, K.Subramanian, Santanu Chatterjee, N. S. Lamba,Biswaroop Banerjee, S. S. Sengupta, SatishDandekar, Sandeep Chaturvedi, Sanjeev Mishra,Ashim Ghosal and Benny M. Verghese.

Braving scorching sun and severe heatwave, more than 1000 sales promotionemployees of Bihar and Jharkhandcoming from various towns and cities,participated in a rally at Patna on 25 Mayon the eve of BSSR Union’s 46th state

BIHAR-JHARKHAND

)*�%+���(��������(�,##-� ����chairman of the reception committee, J SMajumder, Arun Mishra, Aloke Banerjee,fraternal trade union leaders from Bank,Insurance, GIC, NGEF and others alsoaddressed the open session.

The business session began with

conference held during 25 to 27 May. Therally culminated at the Kargil Chowk for amass meeting addressed by YusufTarigami, CPI(M) MLA from J&K, FMRAI’sformer general secretary J S Majumder,CITU’s Bihar state secretary Arun Mishra,FMRAI’s joint general secretary AlokeBanerjee and BSSR Union’s generalsecretary Deepak Bhattacharya. Union’spresident Ratan Chakraborty presided.

Yusuf Tarigami , while inaugurating theconference at Comrade M K PandheNagar(Maharana Pratap Bhawan) andComrade Sunil Kumar Jha Manch, calledupon the sales promotion employees forpreparing themselves to fight against allanti people- anti labour and pro Americanpolicies of the central government, againstprice rise and corruption. He also explainedin details the prevailing situation in J&K andrepressive policies of the communal andcapitalist forces against common people ofthe state vis-à-vis struggle and movementagainst the same by the workers andpeople in general. Manjul Kumar Das,

placing of secretary’s report by DeepakBhattacharya and the treasurer’s report byKalyan Acharya. Both the reports wereunanimously adopted after discussion by68 delegates out of 447 attending theconference from all 29 units of the unionand replies given by the general secretaryand the treasurer.

The conference adopted resolutionson membership, for enforcement ofRs.10,000 as minimum wages for the salespromotion employees, demandingenforcement of 8 hours work in the statesof Bihar and Jharkhand, against rise ofpetrol prices and for making silver jubileeconference of FMRAI a grand success.

The conference unanimously electeda 49 member executive committee withSanjay Chatterjee as the president,Deepak Bhattacharya as generalsecretary, Anirban Bose and AnupamKumar as joint secretaries and KalyanAcharya as treasurer of the union. Theconference also elected 56 delegates forthe FMRAI conference.

Yusuf Tarigami addressing the conference

36th state conference of MadhyaPradesh- Chattisgarh Medical & SalesRepresentatives’ Union (MPMSRU) heldat Bilaspur during 10- 12 June, noted rapidorganizational development, increase inthe membership and number of councilssince last conference. Amidst suchsignificant developments, CITU’sChattisgarh state general secretary B KSanyal inaugurated the conferenceattended by 173 out of 203 eligibledelegates and 9 observers. Mayor of the

MADHYA PRADESH – CHHATTISGARH

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Bilaspur town Sm. Veena Rao alsoaddressed the participants. FMRAI’s vicepresident Deepak Bhattacharyaaddressed and guided the conference.MPMSRU’s president S. K. Talukdarplaced presidential address, generalsecretary Shailendra Sharma placedsecretary’s report and Anurag Saxenatreasurer’s report. 59 delegatesparticipated in discussion before both thereports were unanimously adopted by the

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