Mr. N.Ram
Chairman, Kasturi and Sons Ltd.
Chennai.
 

Dear Mr Ram,

I write to you with dismay and disappointment.

For the last two days, journalist staff of the Mumbai bureau of The Hindu have been complaining to us that they received calls from the Resident Editor Vikas Dhoot asking them to resign and take 3 months wages or face termination. They were barely given 2-3 days to revert on this Hobson’s choice. We believe a similar strategy to shed employees is being followed at other centers too.

In Mumbai, on 21 June, the 20 journalists who have been asked to go have put out a desperate and heart-rending appeal to save their jobs to you and other members of the Kasturi & Sons board. We don’t know if the appeal has had any impact, but It is fortunate their voice has been heard by the Press Council of India (PCI), who has intervened in the matter.

The Mumbai Press Club, representing over 2,000 journalists in Western India, has always had high regard for you and for the values The Hindu stands for. Many of these journalists who are now being terminated are our members. It has therefore come as a shock that, at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic is wrecking people’s lives and futures, Kasturi & Sons has chosen this moment to fire journalists and other employees.

High moral character and the principles of humanism of a company and the people who run it can be judged not from their actions when things are ‘normal’ and ‘safe’; but by how they perform during times of adversity and crisis. As economic ruin and joblessness stares at journalists and other newspaper employees, history will ask you: did you support your employees when they needed you the most?

The attempt to force out 20 journalists with paltry retrenchment compensation is both ethically wrong as well as illegal for the following reason:

-        The Union government’s Ministry of Labour has repeatedly appealed to companies not to take away jobs and salaries during this period of crisis.

-        To force employees to resign on threats of impeding termination is against the law and is worst type of corporate bullying.

-        The proposed terminations are in violation of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 which lays down a detailed process of due diligence before employees can be fired. For instance under Sec 25 (O) of the Act, government permission has to be sought before departments can be closed, and retrenchment effected.

-        These are permanent employees under the Working Journalists Act, and cannot be dispensed with by the stroke of a pen.

-        No attempt has been made to discuss or reach out to these journalists after they have loyally served the company in very adverse conditions in Mumbai.

Dear Sir, I believe you have the moral fibre and the empathy to reverse a bad move. Summary terminations of this sort are illegal and will have serious long-term ramifications for the company.

There is still time to reach out to these employees and work out a formula to save their jobs and future. I am sure you will rise to the occasion.

Yours truly,

Gurbir Singh