Medical Representatives demand Minimum Wages of Rs 25,000, take to streets

Bathinda: Demanding a fix minimum pay of Rs 25,000 and clearly defined timings of 8 hours of work each day, the Medical representatives ( MRs) in the area were seen taking to streets recently.

A protest march was carried out by the members of the Punjab and Chandigarh Medical and Sales Representatives Union (PCMSRU) and Punjab Medical Representatives Association (PMRA), Bathinda. The protest was staged for the fulfilment of their long due demands, including exemption of medicines from goods and services tax(GST) ambit.

The members of the union came out on the streets with various demands to be fulfilled by the government. They pitched about wages and working hours for medical representatives. They even came up with the demand for specific provisions for MRs, in order to safeguard their practices with the pharmaceutical companies. Eventually, the need for removing drugs and types of equipment from GST’s lens was also accentuated by them.

The union members raised slogans during the protest march. They demanded that their long-pending demands should essentially be fulfilled by the government on a priority basis.

A protest march was carried out by the members from Gandhi Market up to the District Administrative Complex. A memorandum of demands was submitted to the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Gurbant Singh Brar.

“The government must fix minimum wages of medical representatives at Rs 25,000 (for workman category). Moreover, the government needs to clarify fixed timings for fixed eight working hours for medical representatives as there is no clarity about the time of the day these working hours apply,” Deepak Singh Buttar, president of the PMRA, told the Tribune.

“The Sales Promotion Employees Act (SPEA) must be implemented in full capacity. The government must ensure that there are specific provisions so that MRs are not subjected to unfair labour practices by pharmaceutical companies. And finally, the government must remove medicines/equipment from the GST’s ambit so that people can afford cheaper medicines,” Harmeet Singh, spokesperson for the union, told the daily.