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Corrupt Back-wages

A corrupt route of back-wage collection by teachers has come into vogue – as noted in “Are Back-wages Sin?”

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- John B. Monteiro

Are Back-wages Sin?

By John B. Monteiro

 Which by hook or crook gathered

And by his own invention fathered.

 -Samuel Butler, English wit and poet (1612-1680).

The Bible says: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans VI 23). After wages came back-wages – under organized labour contracts and practices. Back-wages are the product of the industrial revolution. The question arises: Are back-wages sin? Depends, as the two situations involving back-wages cited below  indicate.

 After some initial free-lancing, John got a journalistic job in a newspaper. After being confirmed, in a few months, the editor apparently didn’t like his face for whatever reasons. When an editor doesn’t like you, nothing of yours goes into the paper – whatever gems you might write. One day he was called in and was asked about his recent published record in the paper. No good saying that you have written many pieces but have been withheld from the paper. The editor asked him to resign on the spot or he would be dismissed. The word “dismissed” did the trick. The editor offered him a sheet of paper and the resignation was signed and sealed.

 When John came out of the Editor’s cabin, the other journalist knew the outcome. They said that he should not have resigned because The Working Journalists Act provides high degree of protection from arbitrary dismissal. Lesson learnt, he went to newspaper B where an arrogant editor wanted to make an example for other journalist by dismissing him. Knowing that he could subsist on free-lancing and having visions of collecting a large sum of back-wages if he was dismissed without due process and if the courts decreed re-instatement, John goaded the editor to dismiss him. He filed a case not in the labour court, where it would be settled quickly, but in the regular court where it would drag on and add to the back-wages kitty.

 owever, the plan went awry because John landed a job in a big corporate at double the salary. Not only he could he not ask for back-salary, his reinstatement would mean working on half the salary. Also, his new employer would come to know about the dismissal. Fortunately, the editor got into a scandal which got into the yellow press. He suspected John to be the source of the damaging information. John studiously didn’t deny the suspicion. It was at this stage, in a further damage control move, John was offered out-of-court settlement which involved an impressive amount of back-wages.

 So, back-wages were secured through a strategy which luckily worked out. Why I hark back to this episode dating back to half a century is that today the corruption route is taken to collect back-wages. It has become a big racket in north India for teachers to get suspended on frivolous grounds by bribing their superiors and getting re-instead, with back-wages after a lapse of years. The suspension period is used to earn money or to look after their domestic front. The scale of bribes has been fine-tuned taking into account the potential back-wages.

 Corruption comes in many and newer avatars, limited only by lack of human inventiveness. The two modes of collecting back-wages cited here have an ends and means facet involving fine moral and legal dimensions.

 Before concluding, here is a brief update on the corruption front. India is still perceived to be among the most corrupt countries by Transparency International in its annual corruption perceptions. India has been ranked 84^th in the list of 180 countries in terms of public sector corruption, which is perceived as being highly corrupt. India’s corruption index is same as last year. But during the last five years, the country has been showing significant improvement. In 2004, India had scored 2.8 claiming 90^th spot in the list of 146 countries compared to 3.4 this year.

 The subject is open to many views. What are yours? Over to you.