Relief for Bollywood and TV industry as strike called off

Saturday was a normal working day for Bollywood and television world. The whole work in Bollywood industry came to standstill when Bollywood technicians and workers went on strike. The strike by Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) was called off on Friday evening after producers’ association agreed to most of their demands. FWICE has 22 unions of 140,000 workers. This three-day strike created a major trouble for television producers as episodes of daily serials has to be shot regularly.

Some of the major demands of workers were less working hours, better pay and timely payment. The workers also complained about the producers hiring non-members of the union, as well as foreign extras and technician as this will results into job losses for them.

FWICE said that the producers’ associations openly violated a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the four main producers’ organisations with FWICE and the Cine and TV Artists Association two years back. Producers’ associations didn’t pay much attention to the various parameters such as technicians’ working hours, payment tariffs and time limit for payment specified in the MoU. The MoU specified that dues of the workers should be cleared within 120 days of services taken. Many workers had not been paid since February this year.

Dinesh Tiwari, general secretary Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), said that producers’ associations have agreed to almost all our demands.

TP Aggarwal, Ratan Jain, Manmohan Shetty, Mukesh Bhatt, Vashu Bhagnani along with others producers were present at the meeting. TV producers association was represented by Dheeraj Kumar. Producers’ associations have signed a fresh agreement with the workers association.