Staff Reporter :
Dhaka reporters Unity (DRU) have demanded the implementation of nine wage board and formation of the 10th wage board immediately.
In a statement on Sunday signed by DRU president Abu Saleah Akon and Secretary MainulHsanSohel urged the authority to implement wage board.
They said significant number of media houses did not pay the journalists. Although there has been talk of implementing a wage board for journalists for a long time, it is not happening in practice.
However, the cost of living is increasing due to the rise in commodity prices. Therefore, the current government must quickly take effective steps to implement the ninth wage board and form the tenth wage board. At the same time, a uniform wage board must be made for newspapers, online, television, radio and multimedia.
The leaders said that a journalist leaves home at 8 am and returns home at 11 pm. In many organizations, journalists are told that they have no duty for 8 hours.
Journalists’ duty is all day. Aren’t journalists also covered by the labor law? Then why are journalists being treated like this?
Government organizations enjoy 2 days off a week, and many private organizations also have a 2-day leave system. Journalists do not have a specific work schedule. They do not even get a weekly leave on a specific day of the week.
This is increasing physical and mental stress on them. The leaders demanded that journalists be given 2 days off a week immediately. Besides, it has become a rule to dismiss journalists at will. Therefore, journalists cannot be dismissed without providing all kinds of benefits according to the wage board.
Meanwhile, from July 1, 2025, the basic salary of government officials and employees has been effectively increased by 10 percent. This is an additional 5 percent increase in addition to 5 percent of their annual increment. In addition, the special benefits or allowances of government employees (especially for lower and middle grades) have been increased from Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,500, and for pensioners it has been increased from Tk 500 to Tk 750.
At the same time, the government has issued a notification to form a 23-member National Pay Commission 2025 with former Finance Secretary Zakir Ahmed Khan as the chairman to increase the salaries of government officials and employees.
However, the implementation of the Ninth Wage Board Rewards and the formation of the Tenth Wage Board for journalists have been pending for a long time.
