Rs.

FMRAI NEWS

Vol. XIV No. 9 KOLKATA

1 MAY 2015

Organ of Federation of Medical And Sales Representatives Associations of India

60-A Charu Avenue Kolkata-700 033 Phone : (033)24242862 Fax : (033)24244943 www.fmrai.org E-mail : fmrainews@gmail.com

Unfair Labour Practice by German Remedies

Field Workers Countrywide Strike

Protesting against managements
gross unfair labour practices on
various counts, breaking hitherto
followed practices and demanding
immediate holding purposeful
negotiation on FMRAIs pending
charter of demands dated 26 March,
2014; responding to the call of FMRAI,
320 German Remedies field workers,
including non-members, resorted to
a days countrywide notified strike on
21 April and staged dharnas in front
of companys establishments.
Expressing solidarity with striking
field
workers,
council
sub
committees organized gate meetings
at Guwahati, Patna, Cuttack, Jaipur,
Zirakpur (Chandigarh), Indore, Durg,
Cochin, Vijayawada, Hyderabad,
Madurai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Chennai
and Stockist at Dindigul. Leaders of
FMRAI, State units and German
Remedies council addressed those
gate meetings. In many dharna
places the illegal settlement of 19
March was burnt. FMRAIs council
sub-committees also protested some

At Kolkata (More Photos, Page 3)

workers to piece-rated workers in
this illegal settlement as each piece
of the MOU became par t of
employment contract; connecting
the memorandum of understanding
as a part of the settlement and,
thus, imposing a standing order in
absence of any registered standing
order for the SPEs through this wage
settlement besides breaking the

field managers who attempted to

break the strike in some places.
Management grossly violated
various legal provisions and resorted
to unfair labour practices which
include signing settlement with FSA
for all SPEs as if it is the recognized
union under MRTU & Pulp Act;
incorporating non-wage issues
including newer conditions of service
and converting them from time-rated

See page-2

Assam Government Declared

Minimum Wage for SPEs
In a significant development, on
April 2, the government of Assam
declared minimum wage for the sales
promotion employees (SPEs)
working in the state, in addition to the
pharmaceutical industry engaged in
(i) cosmetics, soaps, household
cleaners and disinfectants; (ii)
readymade garments; (iii) soft drink
manufacturing industries; (iv) biscuits
and confectionaries; (v) Ayurvedic,
Unani, and Homoeopathic medicines;
(vi)
automobiles
including
accessories and spare parts; (vii)
surgical equipments, ar tificial
prosthesis and diagnostics; (viii)
electronics, computers including
accessories and spares; (ix) electrical
appliances and (x) paints and
varnishes. With immediate effect, the
minimum rate of wage for the SPEs
was fixed at Rs 12,500 per month.
Additionally, SPEs shall be entitled
for variable dearness allowance
(VDA) @75% over the rise and fall of
Index point in the all India Consumer
Price Index for Industrial Workers
(AICPI-IW) which will be calculated
on the basis of change in CPI as on
the date of effect of the fixed rate of
minimum wages (i.e. April 2, 2015)
and to be paid thereafter on six
monthly basis.
See page-2

Homage

Comrade
P. K. Ganguly

Former leader of FMRAI and national leader

of CITU Comrade P K Ganguly passed away
on 15 April 2015 night at his residence in New
Delhi after prolonged illness. He was 82.
Comrade Ganguly joined medical and
sales representatives movement at Patna by
end of 1960s and became the president of
BSSR Union in 1972. Under his leadership
three way struggles developed in FMRAI in
early 1970s fight against trade union
reformism; fight against drug multinationals and
for self reliance in drug production in the
country; and for trade union rights of the
medical and sales representatives.
When the then leadership of FMRAI supported
the emergency in the country, he fought against
emergency rule. When they supported
management-sponsored field staff association
line, he fought against it and built up council
movement. He fought against their disruption line
in West Bengal and moved in different parts of
the country to unify the field workers on struggle
line. Ultimately, the then leadership was defeated
in 1976 election of FMRAI with P K Ganguly
becoming an office bearer.
He was one of the main campaigners in
anti-Glaxo movement during 1972-73 with
clarion call of nationalization of all multinational
drug firms and for self-reliance of the country
in drug production which led to the revival of
All India Chemical & Pharmaceutical
Employees Federation in 1974.
In fighting for trade union rights in the
company Suhrid Geigy of Sarabhai-Squibb
group, where he had been working as a
medical representative, he was dismissed from
services in 1974. Since then he became a trade
union whole-timer with associated hardship his
family had to bear.
Later, he was asked by CITUs founder
See page-2

MAY DAY GREETINGS

The Secretariat of FMRAI greets all
members, units and fraternal
organizations on the occasion of May
Day, 2015. We pledge to carry on our
work in building unity of workers and
toilers; and united struggle to resist
attacks and advance.

FMRAI NEWS

MAY 2015

HR manager of USV
found guilty

FMRAI NEWS
l MAY 2015 l

Sham Executives to Shame

Medical Representatives

Dateline 31 March, 2015; Hyderabad edition of Economic Times (ET) published

a news captioned Pharma firms like Pfizer and others replace medical
representatives with new age executives and concluding that general medical
representative may find it tough to explain to a doctor the complex and highmargin drugs they are pushing.
This article is part of drug corporates propaganda blitz for pushing patented
drugs in Indian market. It is two-way propaganda of drug corporates following
Indo-US pharma working group, formed by US President Barak Obama and Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Modis US visit in September, 2014.
On one side there is attempt to replace brand generic (chemical names)
division, as in India, by patent-generic (off-patent) division of medicines, as in
developed capitalist countries. In capitalist system the market competition
necessitates brand promotion of a commodity. Drugs product cannot be promoted
in India like other commodities through print or electronic media or internet. An
exclusive law The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement)
Act, 1954 was created and still exists especially for brand promotion of drug
companies products exclusively through medical representatives. Under this
law, no new age executive can promote pharmaceutical products.
Suddenly, a high profile campaign is launched stating that there is no need of
brands in medicines i.e. there is no need of sales promotion of medicines which
means that there is no need of market competition in medicines! Then why the
private companies would manufacture medicines, that too in a stage when neoliberal
economic policies are ruthlessly being implemented! Modiji, Amir Khan, Navin
Patnaik et al, who do, dream and die for corporates; plus now-removed scam
tainted health ministers of Madhya Pradesh and of Jammu & Kashmir allowed their
photos and names to be used to remove medicines brands to be replaced by
generics as their hearts are crying out for poor people of India! No such sales
promotion is necessary for patented medicine, it being a monopolized commodity.
This attack on medical representatives is deep-rooted. Only in India medical
and sales representatives are organised in professional-category union, FMRAI;
conducted many struggles during more than five decades; created special law The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act (SPE Act) - for
themselves; got covered under all labour laws in the country, through SPE Act,
after they were declared outside the purview of labour laws in May & Baker case
by Supreme Court in 1956; brought state amendments in I. D. Act; brought them
in industry schedules under Minimum Wages Act and fixed minimum wages for
them; got legally notified working hours and timings in several states; formed
national tripartite standing committee for them; etc.
Neoliberal policy wants to destroy all these. This story in ET is a poorly
prepared story for this, to put the medical representatives in bad light. It got
mixed up with organised sector drug companies attempt to keep their sales
promotion employees outside the reach of the union be it by formation of
sponsored field staff associations, by categorizing them as M4 officers as in
Pfizer as back as in mid-70s; or wide-spread use of differently named executives
as sales officers beginning about two and half decades before. New age
executives indeed!
Ill informed ET editor should know that the existing special law, the SPE Act,
defines Sales Promotion Employee as sales promotion employee means any
person by whatever name called (including an apprentice) employed or engaged
in any establishment for hire or reward to do any work relating to promotion of
sales or business, or both. A sales promotion employee is a worker under law
by whatever name called medical representative or new age executive.
ET story referred to Pfizer as a symbol of drug companies recruiting the new
age executives. Unfortunately for them, there is another story on Pfizer as a symbol
of deception and cheating the law in respect of these new age executives. On
complaint of FMRAI, inspectors under SPE Act inspected the premises of Pfizer on
22 December, 2010 and got written undertaking from the management and inspection
report, counter-signed by the management, declared that total number of Sales
Promotion Employees in Pfizer was 1985 on the day of inspection including 901
named as Professional Service Officers (PSOs), 180 named as Sr. PSOs, 786 name
as Trainee PSOs, 88 named as Product Specialists (PS) and 30 named as Sr. PS in
the company. These are the new age executives in Pfizer. For violation of SPE Act
in respect of these new age executives by Pfizer, prosecution case, filed by the
Government of Maharashtra in CJM court in Mumbai, is still continuing.
ET story, however, is totally blank on industry analysts or professional
executives giving details as to the supposed improvement in business volume
and profit after engaging these new age executives. At least in Pfizer, the
performance of these not-the-least-new-age executives in respect of turnover
and profitability is far behind when compared with that of the poor general
medical representatives who are working in Pfizer consequent to merger of Wyeth.
This is the limitation of paid-news.
2

The deputy general manager (HRD) of M/s USV Limited was found as culprit by
the assistant labour commissioner, circle II, Visakhapatnam for not issuing appointment
letter in Form A and referred the matter to the 2nd Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court to
punish the guilty as per law.
N Subramanyam, assistant labour commissioner, circle II, Visakhapatnam was
appointed as inspector to examine a complaint filed by APMSRU against USV for not
issuing appointment letter in Form A to the companys seven sales promotion employees
working at Visakhapatnam.
During inspection, USV Limited was identified as an establishment under Section
2(A) of the SPE Act. On 27 September, 2014 it was also found by the assistant labour
commissioner that the complaint of APMSRU was justified and USV did not issue
appointment letter in Form A in gross violation of Section 5 and clause 22(1) of the
SPE Act and Rules. Such violation was identified by the labour authority as punishable
under Section 9 of the Act.
from page-1

Minimum Wage

The secretariat of FMRAI congratulated

the field workers of Assam for their
determined struggle and the achievement.
Such notification was issued under the
relevant provisions of the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948 following the recommendations
of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board
which were finalized in its meeting dated
23 September, 2014. The meeting was
chaired by the labour minister of Assam
and was par ticipated by labour
commissioner and deputy labour
commissioner
of
Assam;
two
representatives from IDMA; Assam CITUs
general secretary Deben Bhattacharya;
CRUs general secretary Bijan Das and its
joint
general
secretary
Rahul
from page-1

German Remedies Strike

existing practice of holding simultaneous

negotiations, reaching to a common
conclusion and signing separate but
identical settlements with both the unions.
(see FMRAI News, April, 2015)
Subsequently FMRAI wrote to the
management on 14 April expressing its
preparedness to withdraw its strike
decision on written communication from
management that they would begin
negotiation with FMRAIs committee for the
purpose of signing a wage settlement
without linking it with MOU, as per past
from page-1

President Comrade
B T Ranadive to shift
to CITU centre in
Delhi to undertake
higher
national
responsibility. At all
India centre of CITU
Comrade P K
Ganguly led many
struggles. Comrade
Ganguly was one of
the
national
secretaries of CITU
during 1983 2003
till his health could
permit. He was the
founder general
secretary of Beedi
Workers Federation
(CITU); convener of
All India Coordination
Committee of Unorganised Sector
Workers Unions
(CITU); editor of
CITU journals
Working Class and
CITU Mazdoor.

Purakayastha.
During the meeting of the Minimum
Wages Advisory Board, Bijan Das and
Rahul Purakayastha placed their views on
behalf of the SPEs. They pointed out that
the SPEs should be treated as highly skilled
workers considering their nature of job.
They were supported by Deben
Bhattacharya. Finally, the labour
commissioner concluded that the
employers representatives were given
enough opportunity being heard; that there
were no procedural lapses on the part of
the government in fixing the minimum
wages for SPEs and came to the conclusion
that the minimum rates of wages for SPEs
ought to be Rs 12,500 per month.

practice and without bringing any

extraneous matter like the purpor ted
settlement which management declined to
accept.
Shor tly, FMRAI is going to file
complaint
memorandum
to
the
Maharashtra labour commissioner urging
not to register the disputed settlement
dated 19 March; effective intervention in
the managements unfair labour practice
and admit FMRAIs charter of demands
dated 26 March, 2014 into conciliation /
adjudication.

Comrade P. K. Ganguly
Comrade P K Ganguly left
behind his son Arup and daughter
Rupu with their respective
families.
FMRAI pays respectful

01.05.2015

homage to Comrade P K
Ganguly, dips its flag and sends
heart-felt condolence to his
bereaved family members.

FMRAI NEWS

COUNCIL NEWS

Elder Field Workers

Countrywide Hunger Strike

Gate meeting at Kolkata

Demanding of their jobs in Hyderabad, Jaipur, Patna,
Torrent; immediate release of Chandigarh, Ranchi, Lucknow,
salaries and reimbursement of Cuttack, Chennai and Kolkata.
expenses, the field workers of In Kolkata, the gate meeting
Elder Pharmaceuticals Limited before Torrent zonal office was
by
FMRAIs
throughout the countr y, addressed
irrespective of their divisions, secretary Santanu Chatterjee;
resorted to a days hunger strike its treasurer Partha Rakshit;
on 23 April. On the day, Elder Elder all India convener and
field workers along with the WBMSRUs general secretary
council
subcommittee Sumahan Chakrabor ty; its
members staged dharnas and secretary Sanjay Sen; Elder
demonstrations before Torrent joint all India convener Basab
establishments and submitted Roychowdhury and others.
memoranda at Guwahati, WBMSRUs vice president

MAY 2015

German Remedies
Strike Photos

Sumit Roy presided.

Elder Pharmaceuticals
closed and sold two of its
marketing divisions to Torrent.
Under Section 25FFa, the jobs
of all sales promotion
employees of these divisions
were
supposed
to
be
automatically transferred to
Torrent with continuation of
service and other legal rights.
But, once the deal was
finalized, Torrent management
refused to take 153 Elder field
workers. An undated letter was
jointly issued by both the Elder
and the Torrent managements
in an attempt to usurp the legal
rights of the field workers on
job continuation in case of
transfer of establishments by
means of unfair labour practice
and in violation of mutually
agreed memorandum of
understanding. This was a
conspiracy of Elder-Torrent
managements to end the field
workers trade union and
collective bargaining rights.

At Vijayawada

At Jaipur

Alkem Field Workers Preparing

for Two Days Strike
Alkem field workers are once again gearing up
for two days country-wide strike on 29-30 May in
pursuance of their long pending demands including
FMRAIs charter of demands for the field workers
of the company pending since December, 2013
and for resolution of victimization issues.
On the first day of the strike, Alkem field
workers and council subcommittees will meet the
distributors at their respective headquarters and
will hand over a memorandum for onward
submission to the management. On the
second day of the strike, all Alkem field workers
will stage day long dharna in front of their offices
/ C&F agents at the state capitals. Prior to the
strike, subunit Alkem council meeting shall be
held for mobilization. FMRAIs council
subcommittees at every level will help and extend
solidarity to the Alkem field workers.
Alkem field workers have been patiently
pursuing their demands which include settlement

of charter of demands dated 21 December, 2013;

constitution of grievance redressal forum for the
field workers under Section 9c of Industrial
Disputes Act; appointment letters in Form A and
compliance of leave rules and other provisions
of SPE Act and resolution of pending victimization
issues. In pursuance of their legitimate demands,
Alkem field workers successfully resorted to
various industrial actions including joint
memorandum submission, nation-wide strikes,
march to head office at Mumbai etc. Instead of
acceding the just demands, management
resorted to fresh victimization of north zone joint
zonal convener through dismissal.
Under the circumstances, all India council
(AIC) meeting of Alkem, held on 17 February of
this year decided to resort to further industrial
actions including strikes. The AIC meeting
decided to pursue the pending charter of
demands legally also.

At Madurai

STATE NEWS

Condolence
Comrade Pulakesh Majumder
Comrade Pulakesh Majumder, 54, a field
worker working in Geno Pharmaceuticals died
on 25 April. He was suffering from cancer and
was under treatment in a hospital at Kolkata
where he died. He left behind his old mother
and wife.
Comrade Pulakesh was the convener of
WBMSRUs Geno council and made
contributions in field workers movement as well as in
democratic movement. Large number of field workers, leaders
of FMRAI and WBMSRU paid tributes when his mortal remains
was brought to FMRAI office on the way to crematorium.
FMRAI condoles the sad demise of Comrade Pulakesh
Majumder and sends heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family.

Comrade
Ravi Chandel
Comrade Ravi Chandel,
57, a field worker of Pfizer
(erstwhile Wyeth)
and
member of MPMSRUs
Chhindwara unit died on 1
March. He was suffering from
cancer. He left behind his
wife, daughter and son.
FMRAI mourns the sad
demise of Comrade Ravi
Chandel and sends heartfelt
condolence to the bereaved
family.

KMSRA members of Palakkad district attending foundation

stone laying ceremony of their own building on 21 March.
A. K. Balan, MLA, laid the foundation stone.

APMSRU
Ananthapur
The annual general body
meeting
of
APMSRUs
Ananthapur unit, held on 5 April
was inaugurated by its general
secretary A G Rajamohan.
CPI(M)s district secretary V
Rambhupal Reddy greeted the
par ticipants. Activity repor t
placed by the unit secretary

was discussed and adopted.

The new unit committee was
elected with G Narendra as
president, A Rambhupal Reddy
as secretary and C Sivaiah as
treasurer. APMSRUs secretary
G Manohar along with its
treasurer D Prasad was also
present.
3

MAY 2015

Registration No. WBENG/2001/6430

FMRAI NEWS

Postal Registration No. KOL RMS/106/2013-2015

S T AT E N E W S
AGB Meetings
MPMSRU

UPMSRA
Ratlam

Lucknow
200 members of UPMSRAs
Lucknow unit attended in the
AGB meeting, held on 19 April
at Udyan Bhawan. Following
hoisting organizational flag by
unit president Arun Singh, the
AGB meeting was formally
inaugurated
by
state
committee member Subrata
Banerjee. Leaders of FMRAI
and UPMSRA which include
R.P.Singh, Rakesh Pandey
addressed and greeted the
meeting. CITUs UP state
president R.S.Bajpayee and
other fraternal organization
leaders also greeted the AGB

meeting. Sarvesh Gupta was

the state observer.
Secretary and treasurer
reports were adopted following
discussion by members. Meeting

elected 35 member executive

committee with Arun Singh as
president, Surojeet Mukherjee as
secretary and Anwar Hafeez
Siddiqui as treasurer.

Moradabad unit attended their

annual general body meeting

on 19 April. UPMSRAs vice
president Arvind Tiwari and
CITUs district coordinator
Vishnu Sharma addressed. Unit
secretary Manoj Chaudhary
and treasurer Sanjay Narang
placed their reports which were
adopted after vivid discussion.
A 19 member new unit
committee was elected and
Nagesh Pathak, president;
Manoj Chaudhary, secretary
and Sanjay Narang, treasurer
were re-elected.

182 MPMSRU members of Ratlam unit including two of its

satellite units namely Mandsaur and Neemuch attended their unit
conference on 19 April. Reports placed by unit secretary Manish
Dixit and treasurer Pankaj Mehta were adopted following
discussions. A new unit committee was elected unanimously.
Ashwini Mehta presided.

Durg

Moradabad

140 members of UPMSRAs

The annual general body

meeting of Durg unit of
MPMSRU, held on 19 April was
attended by 94 members.
Repor ts placed by unit
secretary Vivek Satake and

treasurer Lalit Dewangan were

discussed and adopted.
MPMSRUs leader Anupam
and steel employees union
leaders S K Pali and S P Dey
greeted the participants.

Sagar

BSSRU

89 comrades attended the

AGB meeting of Sagar unit,
held on 26 April. Following
discussion, both the reports of
unit secretary, placed by
Virendra Goswami and by
treasurer Sanjay Soni were

Patna
104 BSSRU members from
three units of Patna namely
Central, West and South
attended their annual general
body meeting on 2 April which
was inaugurated by BSSRUs
vice
president
Sanjay
Chatterjee. Reports placed by
unit secretaries and treasurers
were adopted after discussion.
BSSRUs general secretary
Devashis Roy greeted.

adopted unanimously. Meeting

co-opted 5 unit committee
members with vacancies.
MPMSRU president S K
Talukdar and state treasurer
Anurag Saxena guided and
addressed the meeting.

WBMSRU
South Howrah-2

Sitamarhi
70 members of BSSRUs
Sitamarhi unit attended their
annual general body meeting
on 19 April which was
inaugurated by BSSRUs
leader Rakesh Kumar and
addressed by its secretary R
S Ray. U n i t s e c r e t a r y
Avinash
Kumar
and
treasurer Alok Kumar placed
their repor ts which were
adopted
following
discussion. Manoj Kumar
presided.

105 WBMSRU members of

south Howrah local committee2 attended their annual general
body meeting, held at Comrade
Samar Mukherjee Manch of
Comrade Shyamaprasanna
Bhattacharya Hall which was
inaugurated by WBMSRUs vice
president Shyamal Majumdar.

Local committee secretary Niloy

Banerjee and treasurer Sandip
Bose placed their reports which
were
discussed
by
9
participants and were adopted.
WBMSRUs state committee
member Partha Banerjee
addressed. Rajib Choudhury
presided.More News, See page-3

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 Satyajug
Employees 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