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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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Brinda Karat flagged off

��������� ���������������������Amidst beating of drums by Praja Natya

Mandali and raising slogans by hundredsof APMSRU members, forefront leader ofdemocratic movement in India BrindaKarat, former MP, flagged off FMRAI’sgolden-jubilee-flag-march from Indira Parkat Hyderabad on 13 May. Brinda Karathanded over FMRAI’s flag to APMSRU’spresident Mukund Kulkarni to mark thebeginning of FMRAI’s golden jubileecelebration. It was here at HyderabadFMRAI was formed in 1963. FMRAIemerged out as a powerful trade union inthe country with expected one lakhmembership in 2012.

In presence of FMRAI and APMSRUleaders T. Kameshwar Rao, U. V.Krishnaiah and others; Kulkarni, in turn,handed over the flag to FMRAI’s presidentR. Viswanathan for the flag-march’s onwardjourney in 342 city/town units in all statesand union territories in India ultimately toreach FMRAI’s golden jubilee yearconference in Kolkata in 2013.

Flagging off the march was followed by

a colourful procession, greeted on way byCITU, AIIEA, United Medical and HealthEmployees Union and United ElectricityEmployees Union, reaching Sundaraiah

Vignana Kendram for a convention.Addressing the convention Brinda Karat

congratulated the members for celebratinggolden jubilee of FMRAI fighting the

complex situation created by neo-liberalpolicies of the government; appreciatingFMRAI’s strong opposition to FDI in pharmaindustry and its adverse impact on thepeople of India; their fight for medicine forthe people including the struggle againstclosure of 3 vaccine producing PSUs andthe struggle against irrational clinical trialsconducted by some MNCs and about theirunited battle with the working class andsolidarity actions with democraticmovement. She expressed solidarity withfield workers day to day struggle on serviceand work-related problems aggravated byrestructuring under neo-liberal policies.

Others who addressed the conventioninclude R. Viswanathan, CITU’s statepresident S. Veeraiah and APMSRU’sgeneral secretary A. G. Rajamohan.Leaders of BEFI, RBIEU, GovernmentEmployees Association, JVV, NFPE, SFIand vice chancellor of JAC attended theconvention. APMSRU’s secretary A.Nageswara Rao welcomed the participantsand Mukund Kulkarni presided.

Brinda Karat handing over FMRAI’s flag to APMSRU’s president Mukund Kulkarni.

From Hyderabad in AndhraPradesh golden-jubilee-flag-march reached Vijayawada on 14May and IMA leaders flagging offthe local march and CITU leadersaddressing the rally; at Guntur on15 May inaugurated byLakshman, MLC and CITU andIMA leaders addressing the rally;and at Nellore on 16 May whereCITU leaders also participated.The flag then was carried toTamilnadu by APMSRU generalsecretary A.G. Rajamohan and atChennai it was handed over toTNMSRA’s general secretaryRamesh Sunder. APMSRU willcarry a second flag to all the subunits of Andhra Pradesh and holdconventions.

In Tamilnadu the flag-marchwas flagged off by senior-mostmember K. Natarajanculminating at TNMSRA officewhere meeting was addressed byFMRAI president R. Viswanthanand greeted by Dr. RexSargunam, president, TNHDAand Karumalayan, assistantgeneral secretary of CITU. The

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flag reached Puduchery on 20May at a hall meeting attendedby TNMSRA members fromPondy, Villupuram andCuddalore. Dr R. Baskaran, G.Ramasamy of CITU and R.Ramesh Sundar addressed therally. On 23 May, members ofTrichy, Thanjavur andKumbakonam participated in themarch, flagged off by Dr. M.S.Ashraf of TNMC, Dr.Gunasekaran of IMA andaddressed by N. Sivaguru,R.Venkatesan, J. Jerome and R.

Raja of CITU. Members ofMadurai and Dindigul unitsjoined the march and rally atMadurai on 27 May, presidedover by Kader Sheriff, andaddressed by Vivekanandan,Balamurugan, S. Gopinathanand V. Vasudevan. The flag-march will reach Salem on 1 Juneand same evening at Erode. Nextday FMRAI’s golden-jubilee-flag-march will reach at the venue ofCITU’s general council meetingat Coimbatore for its onwardmarch to Pallakad in Kerala.

Rally at Hyderabad

First time in the industry, Zydus Cadila’s German RemediesPharma Division have been issuing legally amendedappointment letters in Form-A to all 622 existing sales promotionemployees of the company and more than 300 of them havealready got the revised letters in Form-A at hand. Below is asample copy.

Zydus Cadila’s AppointmentLeters in Form-A

������������� May Day 2012, International Workers’

Day, was celebrated at FMRAI’soperational office at Kolkata with hoistingFMRAI’s flag by general secretary D. P.Dubey. Former labour minister ofgovernment of West Bengal and CITUleader Anadi Sahoo, FMRAI’s generalsecretary D. P. Dubey and its joint generalsecretary A. K. Banerjee addressed thepublic meeting which was presided overby FMRAI’s vice president L. N.

Chakraborty.On this occasion, at Visakhapatnam,

a blood donation camp was organizedwhich was inaugurated by superintendentof KGH Dr. Syam Prasad and addressedby blood bank in-charge Dr. Syamala. 18members donated blood. 50 members of

Vijayawada unit of APMSRU attended flaghoisting ceremony and general meeting.A blood donation camp was organized atthe government general hospital where 30members donated blood. IMA presidentDr. R. L. Subba Rao and secretary Dr.V.Sridevi addressed the members. 21

members of APMSRU’s Rajahmundry unitdonated blood at government generalhospital. Joint collector Venu Gopal Reddywas present as the chief guest.

BSSRU’s president Ratan Chakravortyhoisted union’s flag at Ranchi. Membersparticipated in the joint rally organized byCITU and other unions which culminatedin a mass meeting at Albert Ekka Chowk.Members of BSSRU’s Giridih unit

See page-4

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�������� ���������� JUNE 2012 �

Background and direction of OSG movementFMRAI and the field workers have been struggling

against two-decades-long neo-liberal drive in marketingby drug companies, led by multinationals; and specificallyagainst the restructuring of the service and workingconditions of the sales promotion employees giving riseto three burning problems as below –

(i) Fragmentation of the sales promotion employeesthrough categorization, divisionalisation,contractualisation and capsulation of the union, ifany, aiming at denial of all laws, rules andregulations applicable to the sales promotionemployees;

(ii) Give name of ‘executives / managers’, but in practicecasualisation of the job of the sales promotionemployee linking job security and serviceconditions, including pay and punishment, linkingwith day to day sale of the company; and

(iii) Imposition of variable work inputs and worksystems on the sales promotion employees andcompletely controlling their day to day work throughelectronic or otherwise reporting systems.

This exercise of restructuring by drug companies isfor achieving their complete freedom from all provisionsof laws, rules and regulations, applicable to the salespromotion employees, and not to be bound by bilateraldiscussion / agreements.

Today’s field workers struggle, therefore, is concentratedin determined resistance against neo-liberal restructuringin three burning problem areas; which means struggle foreffective enforcement of laws, rules and regulationsapplicable to the field workers of the country; strongerprovisions of laws and defence of bilateral agreements.

However, the central piece of this struggle is OSGmovement. OSG (Organised Sector Group) is amovemental platform to fight exclusively, independentlyand consistently the neo-liberal restructuring in threeabove mentioned areas of burning problems of the fieldworkers irrespective of company and industrial relation.

OSG is not an organizational structure. It is theplatform for movement, activated at the time of and toconduct movement. The basic organizations are councils.Unity of all councils is represented through councilsubcommittee network - at all India with all India / jointsall India conveners, in states with state conveners / jointconveners and at sub-units with all field workers of thesecouncils. Subcommittees’ structures being vast, it hascore committees at all levels to plan and lead OSGmovement. It means that all core committee members atdifferent levels shall directly lead the movement, mobilizesubcommittee members at different levels and ensure directparticipation of all councils members in the movement.

Since OSG movement is against three burningproblems, which are not company-specific issues, in thismovement specific council has no independent role evenif the three burning problems are reflected in differentforms in different companies.

Based on concrete analysis of certain developments,the Bhopal GCM came to the conclusion that, despiteadverse conditions, it was possible to begin the processof reversal of restructuring of the field workers serviceand working conditions as reflected in three burningproblems of the field workers in the entire industry.

Bhopal GCM’s conclusions were based on the analysisof the following developments and facts - (i) Despite jointdemand of OPPI and IDMA to do away with SPE Act; onFMRAI demands national tripartite meetings were held,decision was taken for constitution of industrial standingcommittee for sales promotion employees and SPE Act

was extended in 10 other industries; (ii) on demands ofFMRAI, state tripartite meetings, including in Maharashtraand Karnataka , were held on enforcement of theprovisions of SPE Act particularly on issuing legallyamended appointment letters in Form-A as the identity ofsales promotion employees and for de-fragmentation; (iii)several prosecution cases have been filed across India byseveral state governments for non-implementation of SPEAct by several drug companies; (iv) some of the companiesstarted issuing legally amended appointment letters inForm-A to the existing employees and some of thecompanies are giving false statements aboutimplementation of SPE Act and submitting copies of fakeappointment letters in Form-A etc. showing that they arein defensive; (v) some companies accepted ‘sales officers’as sales promotion employees, members of FMRAI andbegan negotiation on charter of demands for them; (vi)state amendments of section 2(s) for categorical inclusionof all sections of sales promotion employees have takenplace; (vii) legal notification on 8-hours work are beingissued by state governments; (viii) state notification on‘sales promotion employees’ in the schedule of MinimumWages Act and fixation of minimum wages for the salespromotion employees is taking place etc.

These developments created conditions for FMRAI tostruggle for the beginning of reversal of the process ofrestructuring through powerful OSG movement.

OSG movement has to be supplemented by buildingother movements on following immediate demands asall movements are inter-related and inter-dependent -

- At central government level, immediate demands andmovements are – (i) immediate formation of industrialstanding committee for sales promotion employeeswith FMRAI in it and (ii) holding its meeting soon;(iii) stronger law like imprisonment for violation ofSPE Act;

- To vigorously pursue with Maharashtra and otherfive state government – (i) appointment letter in Form-A; (ii) Suspension of marketing till compliance and(iii) grievance committee for sales promotionemployees as per amended I. D. Act;

- All state governments – (i) legal notification on 8hours work; (ii) fixation and enforcement of minimumwages; (iii) amendment of section 2(s) and photo ID;However, main thrust area is the OSG movement.

Bhopal GCM selected six companies for OSG movementfor achievement of the beginning of reversal of the processof restructuring noting wide manifestation andaggravation of three burning problems, their position inthe industry as multinational and Indian sector companiesand existence and capacity of councils inside.

However, it should never be confused / linked withindependent council movement / negotiation / agreementsin these selected companies. These are six representativecompanies to fight against the neo-liberal restructuringin the entire industry by all councils, united insubcommittees and led by core committees as independentOSG movement.

Bhopal GCM, however, pointed out that advancementof OSG movement depends on two preconditions –� Continuous expansion of councils / platform of

councils in company – group;� Building waves of movement.

Much depends on the capacity of the organization toindependently build OSG movement till Pfizer-WLL,Abbott group, AstraZeneca, MSD-Organon-Fulford,Cosme Farma and Biological E start taking reversalmeasures to begin the process in the entire industry.

Comrade Mahesh Poojary (27), afield worker of Indoco Laboratoriesand a member of KSM&SRA’s Udupiunit, passed away on 23 Aprilfollowing severe pancreatitis. He

CONDOLENCE

Comrade Pranab PaulComrade Pranab Paul (55), a

field worker of TTK Healthcare anda member of WBMSRU’s Raiganjunit since 30 years, passed awayon 14 April due to ailment. He leftbehind his wife and a daughter.

FMRAI mourns the death of Comrade PranabPaul and conveys heartfelt condolences to hisbereaved family members.

Comrade Mahesh Poojary

became a medical representative in 2007. He leftbehind his parents, a brother and a sister. FMRAImourns the untimely death of Comrade MaheshPoojary and conveys heartfelt condolences to hisbereaved family members.

In a report, placed in both Houses of the Parliament on 8 May, theParliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfarecharged the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) of approvingwithout trial one drug every month for marketing by drug companies.

33 such new drugs were approved without trial during January,2008 to October, 2010. These drugs, which are being sold in the market,include Dronedarone of Sonafi Aventis; Aliskiran, Everolimus andDaptomycin (Cubicin) of Novartis; Ambrisentan of GlaxoSmithKline;Pemetrexed (Alimta) of Eli Lilly, Raltegravir (Isentress) of Merk Sharpand Dhome; Colistimethate and Pirfenidone of Cipla; Irsogladine ofMacleods; Exemestane of Pharmacia; Buclizine of UCB; Pentosan ofWest Coast; Ademetionine of Akums; Pregabalin of FDC etc.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee report further stated, “Thereis adequate documentary evidence to come to the conclusion that many(expert) opinion were actually written by the invisible hand of the drugmanufacturers and the experts merely obliged by putting theirsignatures.” The report pointed out that advices and letters ofrecommendations from different experts read exactly the same andwere submitted on the same day.

Union Health Ministry, under whom DCGI functions, had no answerto this report except to state, “As per the rules, the DCGI has the powerto approve drugs for marketing and for human usage without any clinicaltrials whatsoever in public interest”. (Underline added). The UnionHealth Ministry must publicly explain about those public interests. Actionmust be taken against the culprit drug companies and governmentofficers involved in this big drug scam.

Responding to the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee,MCI chairman Dr. K. K. Talwar issued statement saying, “We will beasking DCGI to reveal the names of all doctors involved in the scam…The MCI will examine the documents and take stern action againstdoctors involved if proven guilty.” (Inputs from TOI, Telegraph andIndian Express).

Drugs Selling Without Trial

Yet, the DCGI not only allowed use of Letrozole for inducing fertilityon young women, but also gave formal approval. The ParliamentaryStanding Committee on Health and Family Welfare asked the UnionHealth Ministry to take action against those who backed companiesmarketing Letrozole. The report of the Committee stated, “Officials inthe Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) seem tohave colluded with private interests to get the controversial drugLetrozole approved in India in clear violation of laws for its use againstinfertility.” And, “It is a gross violation of laws by CDSCO, first byapproving the drug for use in case of female infertility and, thereafter,in exhibiting overt resistance in taking timely corrective steps...”

Again Letrozole;Punish the guilty: Parliamentary Standing CommitteeIn 2004, quoting HTC, FMRAI News exposed promotion of

Letrozole without trial thus:

(From: FMRAI News, January, 2004 supplementary)

*City women guinea pigsAn anti cancer drug is not only being widely and wrongly used

by doctors to treat infertility in women, but also being tested illegallyon unaware patients. Letrozole, the drug, has no proven use incuring infertility anywhere in the world.

At least a dozen doctors were involved in the illegal andpotentially hazardous trials on about 400 women in Nagpur,Jodhpur, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kottayam and Amritsar this year. Noone bothered to take permission from the Drugs Controller Generalof India (DCGI), a legal requirement for any clinical trial.

Letrozole was launched in the US in January, 2001 after it wasapproved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use only onpost-menopausal women with breast cancer. It’s being sold in India,among other companies, by Sun Pharma under the brand nameLetroz.

The doctors say they did not wait for DCGI permission becausethey were in touch with “officials from Sun Pharma”. Worse, thesedoctors said the trails were sponsored by Sun Pharma. The Centrerecently issued the company (and Dabur India) a “serious warning”not to market the drug for infertility cure, Health Minster SushmaSwaraj had told the Rajya Sabha this month.

*Answering to a starred question no.86 on 8.12.2003 in theRajya Sabha, the then Minister of Health and Family Welfare andParliamentary Affairs Sushma Swaraj stated, “After examiningthe clarification given by the firms and the published literatureon Letrozole, M/s Sun Pharmaceuticals and M/s Dabur (India)Ltd. have been issued serious ‘warning’ to refrain from any suchpromotional activity which may induce off level use of Letrozolefor fertility, and to destroy all relevant promotion materialclaiming its use in unapproved indications. An Advisory thatLetrozole has not been approved as treatment for infertility hasbeen issued to states.”

More News, See page-3

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After high profile acquisition of Indian companiesby drug MNCs and country-wide protests inside andoutside the Parliament fearing multinational drugfirms rapidly grabbing domestic market and risingprices of medicines, central government stoppedtemporarily drug MNCs/NRIs taking over Indiancompanies.

“The government has recently stopped giving permission to foreigncompanies and overseas investors to buy into Indian drug firms;” and

“The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the nodalagency that approves foreign investments in India, deferred fourproposals at its meeting on March 30,”

– reports Economic Times, from New Delhi, on 8 May, 2012.

Temporary Halt on Takeoverof Indian Drug Firms

Medical Representatives are ‘agents’;Bribing doctors for prescription

- Satyameva JayateIn its 26 May episode, the Star Plus reality show Styameva Jayate,

with big film star Amir Khan as the anchorman, had health-drugrelated corruption as the main theme. It is beside the point that recentlyexposed scamster and media baron Rupart Mardoch and his son,living in USA, are the owners of Star TV.

According to the script, prepared by Star Plus for Amir Khan inthis episode, the medical practitioners and the medicalrepresentatives are the main perpetrators of health-drug relatedcorruption. The script, telecast across India and abroad, the medicalrepresentatives are the ‘agents’ of drug companies and agents ofcorruption in bribing the medical practitioners for ‘pay for prescription’.

Star Plus / Amir Khan does not even know that medicalrepresentatives are sales promotion employees, not ‘agents’, andas such recognized under law. They never cared to know that the allIndia organization of medical and sales representatives, FMRAI,and their members are, in fact, in the forefront in fighting corruption ofdrug industry. Sadly, the programme failed to nail down themultinational and Indian drug companies who are mainly involved inhuge corruption in drug business.

Amir Khan like a film star, which he is, has acted as per the scriptprovided by Star Plus. However, the TV channel and its anchormanowe public apology to the medical representatives for calling themas ‘agents’ and agents of bribing the medical practitioners.

In March this year Controller of Patents P. H. Kurian issued IndianPatent Office order invoking a law permitting Hyderabad–based NatcoPharma to manufacture and sell generic version of cancer-treatmentdrug Nexavar at a price over 30 times lower than charged by its patentholder Bayer Corporation, Germany. Natco’s price will not exceedRs.8,880 for a pack of 120 tablets required for a month’s treatment ascompared to Rs.2.80 lakhs charged by Bayer. This order wouldprovide great relief to the kidney and liver cancer patients.

This order was issued as a ‘Compulsory License’ under section84 of the Indian Patent Act, which is in compliance with the TRIPSagreement of the World Trade Organisation. Bayer has filed an appealagainst Indian Patent Office order to the Intellectual Property AppellateBoard. In March 2010 Bayer had also filed patent infringement suit onNexavar against Indian company Cipla in Delhi High Court.

Compulsory licensing forcheaper anti-cancer drug

Star Plus /Amir Khan:

Out of about 200 field workersof all divisions and of alldesignations of Lupin Ltd inMadhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh, 188 of them joinedthe lightening strike on 30 Maywaiting 72 hours for themanagement to act against aculprit manager who criminallyacted against a field worker atIndore in the evening of 25 Mayagainst which an FIR was filedwith the police next day.

Police at Indore registered acase on 26 May under sections294, 323 and 506 of IPC againstthe area manager Jitendra KumarSharma of Endevour division ofLupin for criminally assaulting andintimidating a field worker BimalKumar Dutta in the late evening of25 May at Dawa Bazar of Indore inpresence of other two Lupin fieldworkers demanding Rs.22 lakhsdumping sale in the current monththrough unfair means

During strike, 20 Lupin fieldworkers staged dharna and

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demonstrations at Raipur andeach 25 of them stageddemonstration at Dawa bazar atBhopal and Indore. In protest,general members of MPMSRUalso came out in large numberstaging rallies at Raipur, Bhopal,Indore, Durg, Bilaspur and Rewa.MPMSRU’s general secretaryShailendra Sharma and treasurerAnurag Saxena addressed therally in the Dawa Bazar at Bhopal;joint general secretary Naveen

Gupta addressed the gatemeeting in front of the companyestablishment at C&F’s place atRaipur; and led by its secretarySandip Chaturvedi and unitsecretary Manish Thackar amassive demonstration tookplace at Indore demanding fromthe management dismissal of theculprit manager and from thesuperintendent of police ofIndore, submitting memorandum,immediate arrest of the culprit.

Demonstration at Dawa Bazar at Indore

Additional labourcommissioner D.K. Das andassistant labour commissionerD.K. Bordoloi informed CRU’sdelegation that general manager– HR of Anglo-French DrugCompany, Bangalore came tolabour commissioner’s office atGuwahati and gave writtensubmission on behalf of thecompany revoking masstransfers of AFD field workers ofAssam and other north-eaststates.

Labour commissioner,however, refused to accept theclaim of the management aboutalleged individual agreementwith the concerned field workers

Stop Press ���� ����� ��� � ��

����� ��������and, on that basis, to close thedispute of mass transfer, raisedby CRU. Labour commissioner’soffice decided to forwardmanagement’s submission toCRU for response.

Labour commissioner alsorejected management’s requestto close CRU’s complaint againstthe company for non-complianceof the provisions of SPE Act andconveyed the decision of Assamgovernment to file prosecutioncase against AFD before the CJMcourt at Guwahati since thecompany failed to comply evenafter the order of the government.

In the meantime, CRU askedindividually AFD field workers ofNE region to explain as towhether they were pressurizedby AFD management to givedictated similar undertakingattempting to prejudice thecharter of demands of all AFDfield workers which is pending inthe industrial tribunal atBengaluru and victimizationissues including that of the allIndia convener, generalsecretary of CRU and FMRAI’ssecretary Bijan Das; and kepttheir membership of the union /FMRAI in suspension.

Attended by 416 delegatesincluding 16 women delegates,12th Kolkata district conference ofWBMSRU was inaugurated byformer labour minister of the leftfront government of West BengalAnadi Sahoo during 12- 13 May.WBMSRU’s president Rabin Deb,FMRAI’s joint general secretaryAloke Banerjee and IMA’s all Indiaworking committee member Dr.Amitava Bhattacharya addressedthe participants in the open

&�&'(') session. After 31 delegates,representing 22 local and 9 basecommittees, discussed, thesecretary’s and treasurer’s reportswere unanimously adopted.FMRAI’s secretary Partha Rakshit,WBMSRU’s vice president MadhuSom and leader of democraticmovement Sushil Saha addresseddelegate session. The conferenceelected a district committee with 15secretariat members, 31committee members and 3permanent invitees with Pratish

Bhowmick as president, SanjaySen as secretary and SumanBhattacharya as treasurer.

11th Nadia district conferenceof WBMSRU was held on 10 Mayat Krishnanagar. All reports andresolutions were adoptedunanimously. The conferenceunanimously elected a 24 memberdistrict committee with SubrataPodder as president, ChandanPurkait as secretary and ArupRatan Mukherjee as treasurer.

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The West Bengal government registereda prosecution case no.C1262/12 before thechief judicial magistrate (CJM), Alipore(Kolkata) against Torrent PharmaceuticalsLtd and individually against the managingdirector Sudhir Mehta and executive VinodKumar of the company for not providinglegally amended appointment letters inForm-A to the field workers in West Bengalin violation of Section 5, Rule 22 and Section7, Rule 23 (a), (b), (c) and (d) of SPE Act.

Show Cause,Prosecution

The Government of Andhra Pradesh issued showcause notice on 10 May to USV, giving 7 days timebefore prosecution, for failing to submit compliancereport within 20.3.12 as was directed vide government’sorder of 25.2.12 on issuing revised appoint letters to allexisting sales promotion employees in Andhra Pradeshin Form-A.

For LegallyAmendedAppointment

Prosecution inWest Bengal

against TorrentLetters in Form-AShow cause to USV in AP

ODISHA District Conference11th district conference of Sambalpur district committee of OSRU

was held on 29 April attended by 102 members. CITU’s vice presidentGadadhar Kunwar inaugurated the conference. Secretary’s andtreasurer’s reports were adopted unanimously after discussion by 10members. OSRU’s secretariat members Sanjay Kumar and S. B.Mohapatra attended the conference as observers. Sambalpur DivisionInsurance Employees Association and Odisha Sales ExecutivesAssociation leaders addressed the conference. The conferenceelected Amiya Panda as president, Susovan Roy as vice president,Manoj Acharya as secretary and Debasish Senapathy as treasurer.

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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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participated in a rally coveringmain areas of the town. Specialmeeting was organized on theoccasion which was addressed byBSSRU’s state committee memberM. K. Das.

At Bardhaman unit presidentsAshim Banerjee and SubhojyotiGhosh hoisted the union’s flag andall 3 units jointly organized aspecial meeting which wasaddressed by CITU leaders NazrulIslam and Kaushik Chatterjee.

Members of MPMSRU’sRatlam unit participated jointlywith city trade union councilcomprising various trade unions.A rally was organized whichculminated into a public meetinginfront of the collectorate.

In Rajasthan, May Day hasbeen observed in all 15 units ofRMSRU with a slogan of “May DayHoliday” through flag hoisting,general body meeting at unitoffices, holding banner at

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7th bipartite wage settlement between StrassenburgPharmaceuticals limited, a middle sector company at Kolkata andhaving marketing operation in 9 states with 230 plus field workersat present; and FMRAI was signed on 11 May for all field workersunder I. D. Act for a period of 3 years effective from 1.4.2012 to31.3.2015. The settlement accrues benefits of Rs.1494 as minimumand Rs.2039 as maximum per field worker per month. Manager(personnel & administration) Biswapati Mitra, GM(finance)Arabinda Bhattacharjee and national sales manager SantanuDasgupta signed the settlement on behalf of the company andFMRAI’s joint general secretary A. K. Banerjee, secretary SantanuChatterjee and negotiating committee members BiplabChakraborty and Santanu Roy signed on behalf of the field workers.

Rs.500 was added in the entry point of the scale withcorresponding rise in the rate of increment in all slabs rangingfrom Rs.10 to Rs.55 with point to point fitment. With the upwardrevision of pay there will be automatic increase in house rent,minimum being Rs.616 and maximum Rs.967 per month. AddingRs.275 special pay was increased to Rs.625 upto 15 years andRs.750 above 15 years of service.

LTA is raised to Rs.2000 per annum. The vehicle maintenanceallowance was reintroduced @ Rs.150 per month. Dailyallowances is increased to Rs.106 in hq, Rs.113 in ex-hq andRs.180 at outstation from 1.5.2012 to 31.3.2013 which will furthergo up by Rs.5 from 1.4.2013 and again by Rs.5 from 1.4.2014.

Two tripartite and identical wage settlements for the fieldworkers of Dey’s Medical Stores (Manufacturing) Ltd and Dey’sMedical Stores Ltd were signed between management of twocompanies and FMRAI in presence of the conciliation officer anddeputy labour commissioner at Kolkata on 4 May. These were 6thsettlements in a row and are effective from 1.1.2011 to 31.12.2014.The settlements derive average benefits of Rs.2005 and rangingfrom Rs.1090 to Rs.5300 as minimum and maximum per fieldworker per month including statutory benefits.

Substantial benefits accrued through revision from 2 grades to3 grades; by adding Rs.125, Rs.725 and Rs.1445 at entry point of3 grades; revision of pay scale with annual increment slabsreduced from 5 years to 3 years and by raising rate of annualincrement in all steps ranging Rs.15 - Rs.145. There will becorresponding and point to point fitment.

All three slabs of FDA upwardly revised with amounts rangingfrom Rs.20 to Rs.65 on service seniority basis. VDA neutralizationrate increased from Rs.2.25 to Rs.2.40 per point.

Upwardly improved benefits accrued in four HRA slabs; kit,education, vehicle, service benefit allowances and in LTA. Rs.125per month is newly added as sample storage allowance. Tradeunion leave for zonal and joint zonal conveners; and stateconveners and joint conveners are increased to 10 days in a yearfrom existing 7 / 5 days. Bonus / ex-gratia would be bilaterallydiscussed and settled.

On behalf of Dey’s Medical Stores (Manufacturing) Ltd Adviser-HR S. K. Dasgupta, GM-marketing (pharma) S. M. Gangopadhyayand GM-works Ambarish Mukherjee and on behalf of Dey’sMedical Stores Ltd S. K. Dasgupta and Marketing-Advisor SoumitraGhosh signed the settlement. On behalf of FMRAI general secretaryD. P. Dubey, vice president and former all India convener L. N.Chakraborty and negotiating committee members - SubartaBanejee, Shaliendra Sharma, S. K. Ghatak, P. P. Mukherjee andR. Rengasamy signed both the settlements.

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medicine market, floral tributes tothe martyrs, hospital gatemeetings, meeting at medicinemarket etc. More than 1000 fieldworkers participated in joint rallieswith fraternal trade unions. Nagaurand Udaipur unit arranged blooddonation camp. Chairperson ofIMA and other doctors attended.

In Odisha at the State Centreat Cuttack, OSRU’s presidentNikhil Chatterjee hoisted the redflag. May Day was observed atAngul, Balasore, Bhubaneswar,Bolangir, Bhadrak, Berhampur,

Bhawanipatna, Bargarh,Baripada, Cuttack, Jeypore,Keonjhar, Rourkela andSambalpur by hoisting flags,holding special general bodymeetings, taking May Day pledgeand joining joint rallies with CITU,other trade unions, massorganizations and other sectionsof workers. The meetings wereaddressed by the leaders of CITUbesides state and district leadersof OSRU. Around 900 fieldworkers participated in theseprogrammes.

Flag hoisting at Vizag

KERALA Conference of KMSRAExcept 1, all 300 entitled delegates participated in

the 46th state conference of Kerala Medical & SalesRepresentatives Association (KMSRA) during 18-20May at Thrissur. The conference report recorded rapidorganizational developments increasing membershipfrom 5369 to 6007 with objective of reaching 7000;and councils from 78 to 106 with objective of achieving125 in current year before FMRAI’s golden jubilee yearconference.

CITU’s president A.K. Padmanabhan inauguratedthe conference and CITU’s Kerala state president K.N.Raveendranath also addressed. FMRAI’s president R.Viswanathan inaugurated the delegate session andwas present guiding the conference. Others whogreeted the conference include FSETO generalsecretary A. Sreekumar; general secretary ofConfederation of Central Government Employees N.Sreekumar, BEFI’s vice president Suresh and vicepresidentof KGNA Usha Devi.

32 delegates participated in the discussion on thereports of the general secretary and treasurer which

were adopted unanimously. Conference adoptedseparate resolution against CFL, on state relateddemands and movement; on roll-back of restructuringpolicy of the employers; against price rise, on peoples’issue on medicines etc. The conference elected ageneral council with 151 members and a statecommittee with 60 members; and a secretariat with G.Madhu as president; Paul Varghese as generalsecretary; Mohan C. Nair and K.M. Surendran as jointgeneral secretaries; U Satheesh Kumar, P.K. Santhosh,E. Surjith Kumar as vice presidents; K. Venugopal, V.V.Raja, K.O. Vincent, M.M. Haneefa, and P. Krishnanandas secretaries and A. Kurian George as treasurer. J.Thomas Mathew and Lakshmi Narayanan.wereincluded as permanent invitees to the secretariat.

On this occasion, in second day evening a seminarwas organized on “Patent law and Drug Industry -Possibilities and Challenges” which was inauguratedby P.H. Kurian, IAS, Former Controller of GeneralPatents. Others who addressed the seminar includeDr. B. Iqbal and C. Raveendranath, MLA.

WEST BENGAL District Conferences ofWBMSRU

The biggest district unit of FMRAI increasingmembership from 2198 to 2355 and forming one morelocal unit with its existing 19 in 2011, WBMSRU’s 24Parganas (north) district conference was held during12 - 13 May at Madhyamgram attended by 526delegates from 20 local units. Inaugurating theconference, Opposition Leader of West BengalAssembly and CPI(M)’s Politbureau member Dr.Surya Kanta Mishra. emphasized on the fight againstneo-liberal policies of the governments and

appreciated the role played by FMRAI and WBMSRUparticularly organizing movements on peoples’demands in respect of medicines besides their ownsectional demands. Others who addressed the opensession include WBMSRU general secretarySumahan Chakraborty and WBMSRU’s 24 Parganas(north) district secretary Pranab Roy. Around, 750members of the district attended the open session.

On this occasion a seminar on people’s demands onmedicines was also organized at Madhyamgram on 5May which was attended by more than 250 members.They joined the seminar after holding a colourful rally.District president Partha Roy explained the issues andAIDWA’s central committee member Rekha Goswamiand secretary of the Bengal Chemists and DruggistsAssociation Tarun Sarbagya addressed the seminar.

42 delegates participated in the secretary andtreasurers report, both of which were adoptedunanimously. CITU’s district secretary SubhashMukherjee and WBMSRU’s vice presidents MadanDas and Ratan Rakshit addressed in the delegatesession. The Conference elected Basab RoyChowdhury as president, Pranab Ray as secretaryand Biplab Chakroborty as treasurer.

Dr. Surya Kanta Mishra addressing

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