The Federation of Medical Sales Representatives Association of India (FMRAI) has sent a proposal to the central government to come out with a centralized working rule for the medical representatives in the pharma sector and others.

The Tamil Nadu Medical and Sales Representative Association (TNMSRA) has already forwarded the request to the state government and has requested the state government to recommend the same to the central government.

At present, the respective companies are prescribing the working hours, time duration and job description for the sales representatives. As there is no uniformity in time and other working conditions, the companies have been exploiting the situation to their advantage. So the FMRAI has requested the central government to decide upon the working rule for the sales representatives in various states.

"The sales representatives at times take care of the administrative work of the company too by filing reports etc and after that they go for attending client calls etc. So they have various tasks to fulfil. Hence even their travel time should be considered as working hours which is not being done now. The 8-hour work rule should also be brought into force here," said Ramesh Sundar, general secretary, TNMSRA.

He said, that the number of calls to be attended by the representative is being fixed by the owner and the representatives have to meet the target within the given time. Achieving the sales target, according to him, was the joint responsibility of both the administration and the sales promotion people. "The managers prepare the sales plan and the representatives go forward and implement it. When such is the scenario it was not proper for the administration to just put the burden of achieving the sales target on the sales representatives alone," said Ramesh.

He said, that the FMRAI was also taking steps to deliver the benefits of the Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act to the sales representatives of the Pharma industry and others. He said, that the association had requested the government to appoint inspectors to monitor whether the benefits of the Act were reaching the employees.

The association has also requested the central government to amend the SPE Act and include representatives of 40 industries in the Act. The central government has asked for the recommendation of the state governments in this issue. "Earlier there was a fixed ceiling which decided the people to be covered by this Act. But now the ceiling has been removed and there should not be any problem in including representatives from other industries in the Act," Ramesh averred.