Wage board for journalists totally unnecessary: Finance minister

It is unnecessary to have a wage board for journalists in Bangladesh as they earn more than civil servants, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.

He made the comment after a meeting with the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh or NOAB on Tuesday, amid an ongoing movement by journalists demanding a new pay scale.

"A wage board for journalists is unnecessary, totally unnecessary, because your salary scales are better than government salary scales," Muhith said.

A journalist then reminded Muhith that public servants receive pension after retirement. He said he used to get paid Tk 8,000 when he entered the profession with a master's degree.

The current wage board for journalists came into effect in 2012.

The Ministry of Information has been working on the ninth wage board for journalists after they started a campaign for better wages following the increase in salaries for government employees.

 

The new board's formation is being put off because NOAB had yet to name its representatives, the ministry has said.

Upon hearing Muhith's comment, a journalist told him that he was "being misled by newspaper owners".

"Then one or two of you should take responsibility, and give me your salary grades," the minister said.

The journalists also told him that there was no wage board for television journalists, and that not all newspapers follow the scale for paying their staff.

Muhith then asked, "How many daily newspapers are there in Dhaka?"

A journalist replied, "201."

"Rubbish! 201? Rubbish!" shouted Muhith.

The octogenarian minister was visibly shaking with anger, when Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu who was standing beside, told him. “It’s okay, sir.”

Muhith said he doubts whether there were even 15 newspapers, at best 20.

“Some 500 newspapers, all bogus. You want me to fix a pay scale for them? No, not at all! I will fix pay scales for these 15 or 20 newspapers.”

He said they were yet to take a decision. “But what we think is, there’s no need for a wage board for journalists.”

The minister made it clear that he wants the market to determine pay for journalists.

“There is no wage board, except for the public service.”

When reporters pointed it out to him that there has always been a wage board for journalists, Muhith said it was ‘wrong.’

“If I find the wage board for journalists above the salary scales of government, I shall not constitute the wage board.”