A tripartiate meeting including the representatives of the government, the pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical representatives will be held on February 16, to discuss the demands of medical representatives and any other issues.

The enforcement of workman status and minimum wages of medical and sales representatives all over the country, extending protection of Sales Promotion Employees (SPE) Act, 1976, to non-pharmaceutical sales representatives, formulating norms for controlling the working hours of medical and sales representatives will be the major demands put forward by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives' Association of India (FMRAI), representing the trade union strength of in the Indian pharmaceutical sector, according to sources.

The federation is on demand to fix the working hours of medical representatives by 40 hours a week as maximum and will force the authorities for that, as there is no fixed time for working mentioned in the acts, informed S. Sukumar, secretary, FMRAI. He alleged that though the workmen status has been entitled to medical representatives, the pharmaceutical companies are yet to allow the rights as per the rules.

"Our demand includes declaration of sales promotion as an industry, as per section 2(J) of Industrial Disputes Act, so that the sales representative should not be punished for the multiple problems faced by him. Rights to create trade unions should be issued and the company managements should discuss the issues by meeting the union at regular intervals," R. Natarajan, president, Tamil Nadu Medical and Sales Representatives Association (TNMSRA) told Pharmabiz.

He said that the Government of India should define special statutory working rules for the medical and sales representatives and should take initiative to enforce it all over the country. The federation will also demand to curb third party manufacturing, as the chances of malpractice will encourage distribution of spurious drugs.

Though the government has called for a meeting, the federation is least in hope on the results, as the decision on 1983 entitling workmen status to medical and sales representatives and another decision on 2002 to implement minimum wages has been neglected by the government unto the time, commented sources. They also said that the drugs policy put forward in the 'Kolkata Declaration' by the non-government organisations including FMRAI, Jana Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), National Campaign Committee for Drug Policy (NCCDP) and the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) in April 2005 has received much recognition from the Central Government.