Cauvery TV Closure: Employees Protest, Demand Compensation or Jobs

The employees of the Cauvery TV have been protesting at the headquarters of the channel in Chennai from Monday evening. The management announced closure of the channel on August 8 much to the dismay of around 150 employees. The management cited financial constraints for the sudden closure. Prior to this, the company had fired its chief editor over his comments on a controversial interview aired in the channel.

This is second such protest by the staff members, as the management has not kept the promises made during several rounds of talks in the past months on the future of the company and the disbursal of the pending salaries. None of the representatives of the management has responded to the protest of the employees.

NO RESPONSE FROM MANAGEMENT

The company is presently active only on the online platform with eight employees. Around 30 retrenched employees are participating in the protest. The employees are demanding immediate disbursal of pending salaries for the months of July, August and 10 days of September. An employee, while speaking to NewsClick, said, “The management is hiding since they are failing in fulfilling their promises. We have been told that the key people of the management are not in town for the past two days. But we have no intention of withdrawing our protest without arriving at a solution.”

The management has promised to hold talks with the employees by Thursday evening, but the employees have resolved to continue their fight.

SALARY NOT DISBURSED AS PROMISED

The employees were promised disbursal of their pending salaries after their first sit-in protest on August 25. The managing director of the company, Illangovan, had promised to pay the salary for July before August 31. “The MD gave a written assurance after we conducted a sit-in protest for over eight hours. Initially, the management refused to hold talks, but later yielded. The MD promised to pay the salary for August and ten days of September before 15th of September,” another employee said.

Illangovan had also promised to hold talks on September 14 on the fate of the retrenched employees in case the company is taken over by another management. But the salary for July was paid only to half of the staff members and payment for the remaining was promised in another week’s time. The employees were also informed of the steps taken by the management on the future of the channel and were invited for next round of talks on September 28.

UNDERPAID BY OTHER COMPANIES

A small number of retrenched employees have managed to get jobs with other media houses, but are heavily underpaid. The companies are taking advantage of the desperate state of the employees. An employee, who was being paid Rs 30,000 by Cauvery TV, is now getting only 50% of this salary. The corporate media companies are exploiting the hapless youngsters to maximise their gains. Some of them have even resigned already, as the workload is heavy while the payment is too low.

UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF EMPLOYEES

In spite of the promises and repeated enquiries from the employees, the management has not conveyed any information to them. This has forced the workers to protest again after from Monday evening. The employees accused the management of having an insensitive attitude and demanded three months’ salary in addition to the pending salary as compensation if the management fails to revive the company.

The company is managed by the Cauvery Power Trading Chennai Private Limited, a coal-based power generation company in Gummudipoondi of Thiruvallur district.

“Since the closure was announced all of a sudden, we are left stranded. They are continuously making and breaking their own promises. If we get a concrete answer from them, we can at least look for alternate jobs,” added an agitating worker.

EXPLORING LEGAL OPTIONS

The employees have already approached the labour court after the unilateral move of the management. The employees are awaiting a positive response from the management regarding payment of the compensation; in the worst case scenario, they are planning to explore further legal options.

“We are waiting for the talks on Thursday evening for a positive outcome. If not, we have plans to explore legal options with the support of the trade unions to secure at least the compensation for our survival till we get a new job,” said an employee.