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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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Rejecting all three contentions of Pfizer management -that field employees of the company namely ProfessionalService Officers (PSOs), Senior PSOs, Product Specialists(PSs) and Senior PSs were not ‘sales promotionemployees’ and ‘workmen’; that they were not members ofFMRAI and that FMRAI’s charter of demands could not beadmitted as an industrial dispute in the conciliation – theAssistant Labour Commissioner and Conciliation Officerat Mumbai D. S. Suryawanshi concluded the conciliationproceedings on 14 June and sent report on 24 November,2011 to the Additional Commissioner of Labour, who hasbeen vested with the power to act on behalf of theGovernment of Maharashtra to refer the dispute to tribunal/ labour court to determine the pay scales, dearnessallowance and other conditions of service of all 1985 PSOs,Sr. PSOs, PS and Sr. PS of Pfizer Ltd; with officialcommunication of the report to both parties – the companyand FMRAI. It is a big jolt to this US drug MNC who considerthemselves above law. It has also set ground rule for otherpharmaceutical companies in Maharashtra.

Rejecting management’s argument the report stated,

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As the days areadvancing for Mumbairally, campaign is pickingup and the rallyparticipants are gearing upthroughout the country.The secretariat meetingheld at Kolkata on 26-27November discussed thedetails of the rally includingthe procession coveringthe main thoroughfare toAzad Maidan.

A delegation of FMRAIand CITU is expected tomeet the Maharashtralabour minister shortly toconvey the demands and

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for concrete announce-ment by the governmenton rally day on thedemands.

In the meantime, asmajor programme, amassive signaturecampaign has beenlaunched on the demandsof FMRAI in whichthousands of field workersare participatingthroughout the country.FMRAI expects more thanone lakh signatures ontheir demands to besubmitted to thegovernment on rally day.

“The Govt. Labour officer of the said jurisdiction has alsomade an inspection under the Sales Promotion Employees(Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 on 22/12/2010 andobserved that about 1985 employees employed by thecompany and appointment letters were issued in Form Aprescribed as per Rule 22(1) as per the Sales PromotionEmployees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 to theProfessional Service Officers.” In this regard the reportfurther states, “The provisions of the Industrial Disputes Actapply to the Petitioner by virtue of the provisions of S.6(2) ofthe Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service)Act, 1976 and the Petitioner is held to be deemed workmanby virtue of the said provisions”.

In respect of membership of Pfizer field workers inFMRAI, report states, “The membership verification andother formalities have been completed by the Commissionerof Labour Office and both the parties were called fordiscussions during the period 17/01/2011 to 24/03/2011”.

Finally, the labour department accepted FMRAI’scharter of demands as, “an industrial dispute under Section2(k) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947”.

Secretary and three other members of Malda district committee - Amtava Chanda, Sanjay Sarkar,Sanjib Mitra and Nilay Ganguly - and two other members - Bappaditya Saha and Subrata Mukherjee - ofWBMSRU, West Bengal unit of FMRAI, were hurt along with hundreds of workers – men and women -when police fired tear gas shells and resorted to lathi charge on thousands of participants in the jail bharoprogramme of the united trade unions on 8 November. Video recording, in possession of FMRAI News,shows that without any provocation police resorted to lathi charge on peaceful and orderly programme ofthe workers. In protest against this police atrocity, WBMSRU brought out protest rallies in different parts ofthe State on 10 November.

Police Actions Against Trade Unions

CITU called industrial areabandh on 3 November to extendsupport to the 90 days longstruggle of the workers of PydiBheemavaram unit of drug majorDr. Reddy’s Lab in Srikakulamdistrict of Andhra Pradesh mainlydemanding reinstatement of 600retrenched workers. At theinstance of DRL management,police used tear gas shells andresorted to brutal lathi charge onabout 10,000 workers whoassembled at DRL gate on thatday. Hundreds of workers wereinjured.

An emergent secretariatmeeting of FMRAI, held at Kolkataon 6 November, condemned thelathi charge, sent protest letter toAndhra Pradesh Governmentand gave 72 hours notice to DRLmanagement to accede to theworker demands failing which

Lathi Charge onDRL Workers

called upon its state units toorganize demonstration in frontof company’s establishments on9 November and launchcampaign throughout thecountry.

On 9 Novemberunderstanding was reached intripartite meeting whenmanagement assured to take backall retrenched workers and CITUsuspended agitation. However,management started vacillating inimplementing the agreementforcing the workers once again toprepare for agitation. Negotiationagain began on 18 November,agreement was reached on 19November and all 600 workerswere back in job within a weekduring 22 – 27 November as wasagreed. The agitation andnegotiation was led by CITU’sdistrict secretary Govind.

Jail Bharo of united Trade Unions6 Medical Representatives Hurt

Estimated 8 lakh workers joined in rallies,demonstrations and courting arrest throughout thecountry on 8 November in pursuance of 10 pointdemands (FMRAI News, October,2011). Thousandsof FMRAI members joined other workers in theserallies, demonstrations and in courting arrest indifferent parts of the country.

About 850 WBMSRU members participated inthe programme throughout West Bengal and 52were arrested. In Bihar - Jharkhand 63 BSSRUmembers were arrested. 58 OSRU members from6 districts of Orissa participated with other trade

See page-3

Nilay Ganguly Injured Bappaditya Saha

UPMSRA rally at Lucknow

In front of factory at Pydi Bheemavaram

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� December 2011 �

It is for Legal IdentityFMRAI’s 27 December Mumbai Rally; reference to

tribunal / labour court of FMRAI’s charter of demands toPfizer (see separate news) and state-wise movement forlegally acceptable photo I-Card have a common thread.

The thread is the legal identity of sales promotionemployees by what ever name they are called. The legalidentity is the appointment letter only in Form-A – forthe existing employees legally amended, if necessary,under section 5(a) of SPE Act. Such legal identity hasbecome the forefront issue in the condition of the drugcompanies’ attempt to deny legal rights of the salespromotion employees.

Changing pattern of sales promotion by drugcompanies through pressure marketing and tradingrequires an army of youths to act as bonded labourwho could be involved in bribery for prescription andtrade. Denial of legal rights to sales promotionemployees is for denial of legal rights of the people todefend their life and health.

Obviously trade union of sales promotion employeesis anti-thesis to drug companies’ attempts. It is notnecessarily to be calculated in terms of quantum of money– the usual trade of the trade unions. Unionization ofsales promotion employees is much beyond that. It hasthe forefront agenda of struggle for legal identity andsurvival as a profession. The problems of sales promotionemployees are not easily understood.

Reference to tribunal / labour court of FMRAI’scharter of demands to Pfizer is significant in the historyof field workers movement. Management of Pfizerovernight converted Medical Representatives of Pfizeras M-4 officer in 1973 when Pfizer Employees Union,supported by FMRAI, was pursuing their charter ofdemands for the first time as their members. The attemptof the Union was foiled. FMRAI struggled hard andbrought SPE Act in existence within next 3 years in1976, but with a rider of salary ceiling to the advantageof drug companies like Pfizer. Again FMRAI had tostruggle for next 11 years for complete removal of salaryceiling in 1987. After about 38 years Pfizer is facingtribunal / labour court in respect of collective issues ofPfizer field workers.

Reference of FMRAI’s demands to Pfizer hasanother significance. It has set the ground rules for alldrug companies in Maharashtra. Three questions areaddressed in the process. (1) Name of the designationof a sales promotion employee is irrelevant and all aresales promotion employees by whatever name they arecalled as was examined by the labour department incase of Pfizer. This rule is applicable in other companiesalso as far as the Government of Maharashtra isconcerned. (2) Any number of sales promotionemployees of a company as members, would entitleFMRAI to represent all. (3) FMRAI has the right torepresent individual and collective issues of salespromotion employees of any company by whatevername they are called.

FMRAI’ Mumbai Rally has the central demands ofappointment letters only in Form-A and order ofsuspension of marketing till compliance. In highlycompetitive market, no company can survive withoutmarketing for a single day. Marketing network is thebackbone of all pharma companies.

Legal identity through appointment letters in Form-A is further consolidated through legally valid I-Cardbeing pursued by state units of FMRAI as forefrontstate-related demands. If appointment letter in Form-Ais for legal identity, I-Card is the passport to entermarketing or sales promotion of pharma products.

Mumbai Rally, I-Card in states and reference ofFMRAI’s demands to Pfizer are complementary to eachother and have to be pursued concertedly with thisunderstanding.

unions. To pay respect to Bhupen Hazarika,programme in Assam was postponed. About 100members of CRU courted arrest in Tripura and 36members joined rally in Meghalaya.

In Maharashtra about 100 members of MSMRAcourted arrest at Nagpur, Akola, Khamgaon, Jalgaon,Dhulia, Nasik and Aurangabad. About 500 membersof MPMSRU in Madhya Pradesh – Chhattisgarhcourted arrest in 18 out of its 20 units.

In Tamilnadu, 250 TNMSRA members joined theprogrammes and 150 of them were arrested. 500KMSRA members in Kerala joined in all districts. InAndhra Pradesh, 156 APMSRU members from 11units participated in the programme; 7 members werearrested.

In Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, 128 UPMSRAmembers of Sitapur, Lakhimpur, Barabanki, Gonda,Faizabad, Kanpur, Shahjahanpur and Raibareilliassembled in the central programme at Lucknow andcourted arrest. 52 members courted arrest atAllahabad, Ghaziabad and at Bijnor.

26 members of DSMRO in Delhi and 11 membersof Gurgaon in Haryana courted arrest. In Punjab andChandigarh, 106 PCMSRU members of Ludhiana,Pathankot, Amritsar and Chandigarh courted arrest.In Rajasthan, 32 RMSRU members at Jaipur and 50members at Kota courted arrest. In Himachal Pradesh,HPMRA members 12 at Mandi, 13 at Shimla, 10 atKangra, 17 at Dharmshala and 13 at Hameerpurcourted arrest.

Drug MNC Merck would have to pay to USgovernment $950 million as penalty for off-labelmarketing and unsupported safety claims of itspainkiller medicine “Vioxx” which was pulled off fromthe market 7 years ago. Merck would pay $321 millionas criminal fine, $426 million to wrap up federal civilclaims and $202 million to state Medicaid programme.

Criminal and civil fines were also enforced on otherdrug MNCs. GlaxoSmithKline was fined for $3 billionagainst marketing irregularities and pricing fraud of“Avandia” and nine other drugs; Pfizer for $2.3 billionagainst fraudulent marketing of “Bextra”; Eli Lilly for$1.4 billion against unethical marketing of “Zyprexa”. Itis reported that Abbott Laboratories is on the verge ofsettling a Department of Justice probe into its“Depakote” marketing and the company has set aside$1.5 billion to cover those claims. Earlier, in December2010, Abbott Laboratories paid $126.5 million to settlecharges of deliberate misreported pricing informationin order to hike reimbursements from Medicare andMedicaid. Additionally, Abbott agreed to pay $41 millionto resolve criminal and civil charges. On similarcharges, drug MNCs like Boehringer Roxane wasfined $280 million and B. Braun Medical was fined for$14.7 million.

In India, the saga of off-label marketing continues.Giant drug companies, both Indian and foreign originviolate the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940; the Drugsand Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements)Act, 1955; the Drugs (Prices Control) Order 1995 (underthe Essential Commodities Act) and other healthrelated laws of the land. November, 2011 issue ofFMRAI News reported about banning of “Letrozole”,following the expert committee’s recommendation andnotification by Union health ministry. However, there isno news yet about punishing any of the culprit companyfor off-label marketing of “Letrozole” for seven longyears, endangering the life of thousands of Indianwomen and adding health hazards for them.

Reacting to the “misconduct by drug companies”,U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said in a statement, “Anymarketing activity that ignores the importance of FDAapproval, or that makes unsupported safety claimsabout a drug is unacceptable, and will be pursuedvigorously in both the criminal and civil arena.” WillManmohan Singh government take any action againstthe drug companies who play with the life and healthon Indian people?

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Jail Bharo ...From page-1

STATE NEWSBIHAR - JHARKHAND

State RallyOn 5 points state related demands 1200 members from all

units of BSSR Union in Bihar brought out a rally at the Statecapiatal Patna on 22 November and a delegation of the Unionmet the labour minister Janardhan Prasad Sigriwal andsubmitted memorandum. Principal secretary of labour Vyasji wasalso present. It was decided that a meeting would be held withprincipal secretary in the first week of December where CITU’sBihar state general secretary Arun Mishra would be participating.

New Unit Formed

The procession began from the union’s office and coveringthe main thoroughfares of Patna reached R’ Block near statesecretariat where police created barricade. The processionwas converted to a public meeting addressed by leaders ofthe union, CITU, other trade union and state governmentemployees’ leaders.

Earlier, led by state office bearers, wider campaign ondemands through special meetings, trade union conventions,group meetings, street corner meetings, poster pasting, leafletsdistribution and submission of memoranda to the district labourauthority etc. was organized.

50 field workersof the town joinedinaugural functionof BSSR Union’snew subunit atKishangunj on 13November. The unitwas inaugurated bythe union’s vicepresident ManojChowdhury. On thisvery day 30 field workers enrolled themselves as members ofthe union. Union’s secretary Debashish Roy, secretary andtreasurer of Purnea unit addressed the participants. The meetingelected a committee with Uttam Kumar as the co-ordinator.

GUJARATState Working Committee Meeting

State working committee meeting of GSMRA, held atBaroda on 9 October, was participated by leadership ofAhmedabad, Baroda, Navsari, Bhavnagar, Surat, Jamnagarand Mehsana. FMRAI’s working committee member DipakPapdeja participated and guided. The meeting reviewed andconcluded that 17 August strike was successful in all 14 unitsand surpassed all previous strike records. Meeting decidedlarge participation of field workers in 27 December MumbaiRally; Paras Seth to function as general secretary, assisted bySunil Sinha; and on unit wise membership objective. Themeeting requested visit of all India and west zone convenersof organized councils to Surat, Ahmedabad and Rajkot.

UTTAR PRADESH -UTTARAKHAND

Blood Donation Camp in VaranasiUPMSRA’s Varanasi unit organized a blood donation camp

on 20 and 21 November in Banaras Hindu University HospitalBlood Bank. UPMSRA members were joined by members fromDYFI, of other organisations and some local people. Prof. (Dr.)K. K. Gupta inaugurated the camp. Altogether 48 units of bloodwere collected. The camp was widely covered by print andelectronic media.

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� 9 other prosecution cases arepending at Mumbai, Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Haridwar andDehradun.� 5 prosecution cases for violation ofSPE Act, filed by the Government ofMaharashtra, are going on in Mumbai.These include -

Fulford India Limited : Case No.70/SL/2009 before the Court of Add. ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate at Andheri CourtNo.22;

RPG Life Sciences : Case No.1392/55/10 before the Court of MetropolitanMagistrate at Bhoiwada, Dadar, CourtNo.5;

Merck (India) Limited : Case No.354/SL/2010 before the Court of MetropolitanMagistrate at Bhoiwada, Dadar, CourtNo.5;

Aventis Pharma Limited : CaseNo.01/SL/2011 before the Court of Add.Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at AndheriCourt No.22; (photo) and

Solvay Pharma India Limited : CaseNo.02/SL/2011 before the Court of AddChief Metropolitan Magistrate at AndheriCourt No.22.� 1 prosecution case for violationof SPE Act, filed by theGovernment of Karnataka, isgoing on in Bengaluru –

AstraZeneca : Case no.CR/10/2011-12 before the Metropolitan Magistrate,Traffic Court – VI.� 2 prosecution cases forviolation of SPE Act, filed by theGovernment of Uttarakhand, aregoing on. These include –

AstraZeneca : Case No.1199/11before the Court of Chief JudicialMagistrate at Dehradun; and

Cosme Farma Laboratories : CaseNo.3653/2011 before the Court of ChiefJudicial Magistrate at Haridwar.� 1 prosecution case forviolation of SPE Act, filed by theGovernment of AndhraPradesh, is going on atHyderabad –

Biological E.: Case no. STC No.1042/2010 before XII Additional MetropolitanMagistrate, Nampalli, Hyderabad.

Solvay Prosecution

AstraZeneca Prosecution

Cosme Farma Prosecution

SPE Act ViolationFrom page-4

COUNCIL NEWS

To continue mutually reciprocalbilateral relation in Albert David, a highlevel meeting between themanagement and FMRAI was held inthe head office of the company atKolkata on 25 November on thedevelopments in the company in UttarPradesh – Uttarakhand. Company’sexecutive director K. P. Mundra andvice president (personnel &administration) Dr. M. K. Maheshwari;FMRAI’s general secretary D. P. Dubey,treasurer Alok Ganguli, UPMSRA’ssecretary R. P. Singh, all Indiaconvener R. N. Tiwari and east zoneconvener Swapan Dey were presentin the meeting.

FMRAI protested against callingpolice and recruitment of musclemento suppress company’s ownemployees’ movement at Lucknow on22 October. Management said thatthey only routinely informed police anddenied recruitment of musclemen.

High Level Meeting in Albert DavidFMRAI raised the issues of unfair

trading and discrimination causingdeprivation and hardship to workers.Management denied any unfair tradingby the company and referred abouthard action taken by the head officemanagement and emphasized onuniformity and denied discrimination.

Manoj Dhar died on duty and wascovered by Workmen’s CompensationAct. In general perception of the familyand field workers of U.P. andUttarakhand, Manoj Dhar was putunder tremendous pressure due todiscrimination by the managementand, therefore, FMRAI demandedcompensation and resettlement of thefamily on legal and compassionateground. Management had differentviews.

The management informed that ameeting of all field workers of thecompany in Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand will be held shortly.

2nd wage settlement in BSN Medical, the 6th in continuation of earliersettlements, was signed on 20 September at Mumbai. Earlier, FMRAI andBeiersdorf signed four settlements, first being in 1991. Later, after formation ofBSN Medical, the joint venture of Beiersdorf and Smith & Nephew in 2005, anew settlement was signed forfield workers of erstwhile bothcompanies, which expired inDecember 2008.

The settlement was signedby the managing director R.S.Ghodge, assistant manager HRNishant Ayare and DGM- Sales& Marketing Pramod Mali onbehalf of the management andFMRAI’s negotiating committeemembers R. Ramesh Sundar, R.K. Gupta, KalishankarChakraborty and A. Venkatesh onbehalf of the field workers.

The settlement is for theperiod 1.1.2009 – 30.6.2012.Average benefits are increase of Rs.815 in salary and Rs.500 in dailyallowances per head / per month at the beginning of the settlement. Those, whojoined after 1.1.2009, were fitted point to point removing anomalies.

In the pay scale, 3rd grade is introduced for seniority weightage; Rs.170 isadded in entry point of the scale; Rs 10 is added in the rate of annual incrementin each slab. Seniority weightage allowance is revised upward by Rs 90 for 5-15, Rs.140 for 16-20 and Rs. 365 for 21 and above years of service.

Allowances were revised upward by Rs. 50-195 in education and Rs. 50–150 in domiciliary treatment on service seniority basis. Kit, sample storage,vehicle maintenance, city compensatory and leave travel assistance allowanceswere also improved. All components of daily allowances were increased byRs.18 for 2009 and 2010 and by Rs.21 from 1.1.2011.

Earlier, the BSN all India council meting, held on 19 September, endorsedthe MOU for settlement. The meeting decided to contribute Rs.250 per memberto FMRAI’s special fund and Rs.750 to BSN council fund from the arrear amounts.They also decided to circulate in state council meetings the management’sproposals on day to day work input for wider discussion before concluding thesame with the management. The meeting replaced Kalishankar Chakraborty inthe grievance committee by Kajal Basu (Kolkata).

Wage Settlement in BSN Medical

Managing director R S Ghodge and All Indiaconvener R Ramesh Sunder exchangingsettlement copies.

Strike in Intas65 field workers of all divisions of Intas in Orissa went in lightening strike on

18 November protesting against physical attack on a Bhubaneswar based fieldworker by a manager in the company’s premises at Cuttack on 17 Novemberduring sales review meeting. The injured field worker was hospitalized. An FIRwas filed in police station against the culprit manager.

28 Intas field workers from Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar staged dharna in frontof company’s establishment at C&F place at Cuttack. Cuttack unit members stageddemonstration ignoring refusal of permission by police. A memorandum wassubmitted to the management demanding removal of the culprit manager within72 hours. OSRU also raised demand to the district administration for his immediatearrest. A gate meeting was held presided over by B. K. Dash and addressed byOSRU’s general secretary Subhankar Das. Earlier, similar incident took place inWest Bengal. FMRAI called Intas AIC meeting at Kolkata on 11 December.

Lupin in KnotManagement of Lupin forcibly promoted L. M. Peshwa as an

executive with placement in the head office at Mumbai. Peshwa isthe president of KSM&SRA, the Karnataka state unit of FMRAI,south zone joint zonal convener of Lupin council and workingcommittee member of FMRAI. Obviously Peshwa refused thispromotion. Management issued charge sheet on alleged refusal of“transfer” and stopped Peshwa’s work and wage. Now, the companyis tied in a knot in Karnataka.

Peshwa filed petition before the civil court at Mysore praying forinterim relief for violation of rules of natural justice by the companyby framing false charges of “transfer” when it was a case of forcible“promotion-cum-placement”. The court issued notice to the companyand the date for filing written statement by the management is fixedon 28 November. Against illegal lockout / work suspension ofPeshwa, dispute was raised by KSM&SRA at Bengaluru and, onfailure of conciliation; the dispute is now referred to tribunal.

For violation of SPE Act and for unfair labour practices of themanagement, a complaint petition was filed by KSM&SRA beforethe secretary of the ministry of labour of Karnataka governmentwho delegated the issue to the deputy labour commissioner atBangaluru for further proceedings. The DLC issued notice to thecompany on 19 November to file reply within 7 days.

Under directive of the ALC, Mysore, Senior Labour Inspectorinspected the Lupin office at Bangaluru and served show cause tomanagement including all the board members and the chairmanof the company for not providing appointment letter to Peshwa inForm-A and for not maintaining registers as per SPE Act.

During last two years,one area manager SandipSawant of Endeavourdivision of Lupin at Mumbaihas been indulging inextortion of Rs 3000 everymonth from each of the fieldworker - Vijay P. Farad,Rajesh S. Yadav, Sandip S.Patil, Amol B. Waghmare,Rahul P. Satre and Yogesh P.Kavde. FMRAI asked itsMaharashtra state unitMSMRA to file FIR with thepolice immediately on thebasis of the complaintsrecorded in the signedminutes of the councilmeeting of Lupin fieldworkers and also decided totake up the matter with headoffice managementdemanding action againstculprit manager and refundof entire amounts to each ofthe field worker.

Lupin inDock

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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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The Mask and The Faces – II (Cont.)

The Face of Law-BreakerThe Mask &Led by the MNCs major section of pharmaceutical corporates in marketing have a smiling mask to cover three

corrupt faces – the face of a bribe giver of pay-for-prescription; the face of a law-breaker as violator of labour lawsand Indian Penal Code and the face of a black-marketer in trade.

In 3 installments these 3 faces are presented. First installment in October presented the face of bribe-giver ofpay-for-prescription. The second installment was about face of law-breaker. This installment is the concludingpart of the second installment.

Law-BreakerManagements of majority of drug companies are openly breaking country’s

laws. These include Indian Penal Code (IPC), Drugs & Cosmetics Act, Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisement) Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Payment of Wages Act,Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, Provident Fund Act, Sales PromotionEmployees (Conditions of Service) Act etc. Following are some examples.

Violation of Payment of Wages ActWage cuts, non-payment or withholding

payment of wages is illegal and is apunishable offence under Payment ofWages Act which covers the salespromotion employees also. However,many drug companies are habitually doingthese on all counts. Managements do notbother to give reason for such arbitraryactions even when affected field workerasks for it. Such attack on wages of thefield workers led to large number ofagitations, including strikes, and litigationsas industrial disputes, cases under section33(c)(2) of I.D. Act, under MRTU& PULPAct etc.

Inspector under Payment of Wages Actcum assistant labour commissioner,Raipur (Chhattisgarh) in case of a localsales promotion employee began legalprocess by issuing notice for explanationunder section 14(4)(d) of the Payment ofWages Act.

Violation of Provident Funds ActUnder section 8-A of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions

Act, 1952 (PF Act) the principal employer has the responsibility of recovery of providentfund amount of the employees, working under the contractors. The principal employerhas to maintain a PF sub-code for the contract labour with PF code of regular employees.The contractor may change, but the job, wage and PF of the contract labour continuewith the principal employer.

However, in this regard big fraud is being played by the companies in respect ofsales promotion employees. As an example, USV, as principal employer, does notrecover from the contractors the PF amounts of the sales promotion employees, workingunder the contractors. The company also does not maintain PF sub-code for the salespromotion employees, working under the contractors, along with the PF code of theregular employees at Mumbai. The company also kept the whole issue outside theknowledge of the Regional PF Commissioner at Mumbai.

PF amounts of the sales promotion employees of USV, working under the contractors,are purportedly deposited by the contractors at their local places. For example, PF ofcontract labour as sales promotion employees of USV in Andhra Pradesh is deposited

at Guntur, of Tamilnadu at Madurai and of Rajasthan at Jaipur. Whenever the contractoris changed, USV management forces the sales promotion employees under thecontractors to withdraw the accumulated PF amount in violation of PF Act.

Violation of Contract Labour ActSeparate news item in this issue quoted

Supreme Court condemning the ‘techniqueof subterfuge adopted by some employersshowing the concerned workmen as nottheir employees but as the employees/workmen of a contractor when in fact theyare doing the work of regular employees.’

Contract Labour (Regulation andAbolition) Act prevents contract labour inany work which is ‘Permanent andPerennial’ in nature. Sales Promotion workis ‘Permanent and perennial in nature’.

Yet, large numbers of drug companiesare doing their sales promotion workthrough contractors generally known as‘franchisees’. In three wayspharmaceutical companies are doing thisillegal sales promotion work. Dr. Reddy’sLab, Ranbaxy etc. recruited contractlabour in the name of ‘rural marketing’.Merck, Pfizer, USV etc. recruited contractlabour for sales promotion work,simultaneously with and equal to theregular employees, through state-wise /region-wise contractors. Somecompanies recruited contract labour fordivision-wise all India sales promotionlike USV for all India sales promotion work

of its Carona division recruited contractlabour through Chennai basedcontractor’s agency named as PharmacAgency and Abbott Healthcare recruitedcontract labour through contractor’sagency known as Vertex for itsMultispecaility division.

Under contract labour Act, the state-wisewatch dog tripartite committee, with quisi-judicial authority – the Contract LabourBoard – can order regularization of contractlabour as permanent employees. At theinstance of FMRAI, its state unions inRajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab,Assam, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh,Tamilnadu and Karnataka alreadysubmitted applications to the respectivestate Contract Labour Boards forregularization of jobs of field workersrecruited by USV through the contractors.Both – the regular and contract labour asfield workers of USV – united in commoncouncil of FMRAI - resorted to strike andagitation including dharna to be held infront of head office at Mumbai on 26December demanding regularization ofcontract labour. This is also being agitatedin Merck.

� So far 3 companies were convicted when they pleaded guilty forviolating SPE Act and were sentenced penalty.

Zydus Cadila: The company pleaded guilty before the XII Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate Cum Special Metropolitan Magistrate, Hyderabad and wassentenced punishment on 15 December, 2010 for violation on 7 counts of SPE Actprovisions in case no STC 818/2010 in respect of one Medical Representative.

Vanguard Therapeutics: In case no. STC No.4 of 2011, the company pleadedguilty before the X Metroplitan Magistrate, Hyderabad for 5 count violation of SPE Actand was sentenced penalty on 26.8.2011.

Genx Pharma Limited (Hetero): In case no. STC No.3 of 2011, the company“Accused pleaded guilty. A.1 and A.2 are convicted U/S 252 Cr.P.C. and sentenced topay fine of Rs. 500 under each count. For two counts Rs. 1,000/- by each accused. TotalFine Rs. 2,000/- U/S 9 of Sales P.E.(C.S.) Act 1976”.

Violation of SPE Act

See page-3