Contractual staff of DD up in arms

The contractual staff of DD News has been wearing black badges to work in protest against the appalling service conditions at Doordarshan.

The contractual staff of DD News has been wearing black badges to work in protest against the appalling service conditions at Doordarshan.

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"The starting salary for the DD News staff is less than R6,000 in many cases and people are finding it hard to make ends meet. On top of that, there has been no salary hike since January 2009," said Ashok Shrivastav, a senior newsreader with DD News.

"Neither is there any provision for leaves or of maternity or paternity leaves," he added ruing the working conditions.

DD News is a 24x7 bilingual news channel under the overall control of the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.

The contractual employees numbering abround 400 have also submitted memorandums listing their demands to the director-general, Doordarshan News, ministry of I&B and the chief executive of Prasar Bharati.

Besides poor pay, there are no provisions of provident fund, medical insurance or pension benefits.

In addition to an immediate pay hike, the listed demands include a uniform structure of contract for all professionals working in DD News, framing future safeguards, introduction of social security benefits besides a reasonable leave structure.