As the central government has sought reports from the state governments regarding the latest position of amendment of Industrial Disputes (ID) Act 1947 to cover sales promotion employees under workman category, the Federation of Medical and Sales Representative's Association of India (FMRAI) has started pressing the state governments for immediate action.

In a circular, issued in August 2006,the Joint Secretary of Union Ministry of Labour has sought the latest position of its request to amend Section 2(s) of the ID Act, 1947, to cover the sales promotion employees within the definition of workman.

The ministry pointed out that a similar amendment made by the government of West Bengal, through ID (West Bengal Amendment) Act, 1981, while requesting the intimation of current status of amendment from the governments of states other than West Bengal and Union Territories on the issue.

The FMRAI has commenced approaching labour ministers of the major states pursuing immediate action on the issue in the context of the new circular. The Federation finds this as a opportunity to follow up its long pending demand of workman status to the sales promotion employees. The move will settle many related issues faced by the Medical and Sales representatives currently, according to sources.

They said that the workman status through the amendment would force the government to define the job specification of sales promotion employees, which is not defined now. Once that is done, issues like uncertainty on working hours, fixation of wages, etc. could be sorted out.

Along with its campaign for amendment of the ID Act, 1947, the Federation is also planning to persuade the state governments to start framing of working rules for sales promotion employees within the provisions of Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1976 and extension of the provisions of the Act to other 40 industries. The central government has requested all the state governments to comment on the issue, as a response to the demands of FMRAI, through a representation submitted by March 2006.

The Federation is planning to go for an agitation to draw government's attention on the Kolkatta declaration and on drug policy of the government. "We were already seeking revival of the PSUs like HAL and IDPL, which was one of our demands in the Kolkatta declaration. There are plans to take support of organizations like Jana Swasthya Abhyan for collectively pressing for our demands," D P Dubey, General Secretary, FMRAI told Pharmabiz. He said that the Federation has also demanded the government to establish PSU drug manufacturing facility for need-based drugs like medicines for AIDS.

The Federation has plans to for state-wise agitation for the rights of sales promotion employees as per SPE Act, by organizing demonstrations in three major states in the country. Rallies of the Medical Representatives from the respective states were conducted in Tamil Nadu and another in Kolkatta early August. A rally of medical representatives working all over the country for Gujarat based companies will be conducted at Ahmedabad by September 18, said Dubey.