The Finance Minister P. Chidambaram while presenting the budget referred to two major interventions that are planned to be started in 2008-’09. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana that will provide a health cover of Rs.30,000 for every worker in the unorganised sector falling under the BPL category and his/her family. Most of the states have agreed to join the yojana and it will be launched in Delhi and in the states of Haryana and Rajasthan on April 1. He proposed to provide Rs.205 crore as the Centre’s share of the premia in 2008-’09. While the industry’s representative has, all these years, justifiably pressed for review of taxation policies with successive governments, the plight of thousands of workers and technicians who work behind the cameras has not been highlighted. Thousands of workers, especially the senior members who have devoted their lifetime to the entertainment industry are living in pitiable condition. They have no place in the scheme of things as far as the corporatisation of the industry is concerned. With the expansion of television industry technicians are working without any break. No holidays. Working shifts extend to anywhere between 16 to 18 hours. Majority of technicians employed on monthly salary work without any holiday and extra benefits for working beyond normal shift hours. They have no social life and stop interacting with life beyond the studio walls. While the perils of prolonged and punishable working conditions can be withstood by those who are young, the senior members have to struggle hard to make their ends meet.

No doubt we did witness the enactment of The Cine workers and Cine theatre workers (Regulation of Employment Act, 1981) and the Cine Welfare Fund Act in the ‘eighties but it required twenty years of sustained campaign to have the outdated clauses pertaining to wage limit amended in Parliament. Even the amended act has not seen much improvement in the functioning and accountability of the administration. Millions of technicians working in the television industry continue to be deprived of any benefit provided by the Act to those engaged in the film industry. The recommendation to further amend relevant clause in the Act continue to remain in the Labour Minister file. All it requires is a simple notification in the gazette to include these workers within the ambit of the above act.

It should also be noticed and observed that the Employees’ Provident Fund though applicable to workers and technicians of the entertainment industry has not been implemented. It is now a well-known fact that the so-called grant of status of an industry hardly means anything to the technicians and workers of the entire film and television industry since no labour law applicable to other industries apply to our industry if the relevant act and clause of IDBI Act is to be interpreted. Many knowledgeable high officials and those who are well acquainted with the interpretation of law have also confirmed this fact. Rules and laws that prohibit them to work beyond a certain number of hours govern technicians and workers in other industries. What the entertainment industry is not realising is that one’s productivity and creativity output is governed by good health. The wage ceiling clause pertaining to enforcement of a contract in the Cinema and Theatre Workers Act needs to be amended so that it is becomes mandatory on the part of employer to enter into a written contract with technicians.

It is interesting to note that Shri N.G. Goray moved a non-official Bill “Indian Film Industry Workers” (Improvement of Working Conditions) Bill, 1960” in 1960. In the year 1964 Smt. Maimoona Sultana moved a bill “The Film Industry Workers Bill 1964”. Ironically both of them either did not press their respective bills or withdrew them on the assurances of the Government.

In this long and arduous journey a delegation of FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees) met Pandit Nehru on 26th April 1964 a month before his sad demise. The late Prime Minister assured the delegation that he would take up the matter with the then Minister for Labor and Employment Shri Sanjeevayya and see to it that benefits available to the workers of other industries were also available to the working people in the film industry. His intervention led to a draft outline of legislation to regulate employment in the film industry during the year 1965. The draft was circulated to all concerned. The film employee’s organisations duly submitted their comments. A tripartite committee was formed and a proposed legislation was drafted for statutory protection over wide areas for all film employees. But several landmark recommendations have remained on paper. When employees in every imaginable sector of India’s economy have legislative protection for themselves in various forms, it is really ironical that successive governments have always overlooked the interests of employees of the entertainment industry.
Opendar Chanana (Mumbai)