Sales reps who work for Pfizer’s Wyeth unit in India are angry that their jobs are being reclassified. Known locally as field workers, the sales are protesting what they consider an illegal change in their job classification to professional service officers, which means they will no longer be eligible for union membership, PharmaBiz reports.

And so the Federation of Medical Representatives Association of India is holding a one-day strike today. Wyeth reps will demonstrate and stage a massive dharna (a fast conducted at the door of an offender) in front of the Pfizer India office in Chennai, along with members of the Tamil Nadu Medical & Sales Representatives Association, which will protest in front of Pfizer offices throughout Tamil Nadu.

Ramesh Sunder, general secretary of TNMSRA, alleges Pfizer has already started ‘deunionization,’ even though legal formalities are not yet completed. Wyeth management allowed reps to engage in collective bargaining and signed several wage settlements with their union, but Pfizer reps have no union. The PSO is a non-bargaining job category and since the reps aren’t accepting the switch, Pfizer management has started to illegally convert reps to PSOs by force, he alleged.

“We are going to agitate against this move of the management. The management of the company has further decided to go with conversions and hence they are threatening the field workers to accept the offer of PSO or senior PSOs,” the TNMSRA official tells Pharmabiz.

He further alleged that the existing posts of PSO or senior PSOs in Pfizer are fake and violate the Sales Promotion Employees Act. There is no scope or provision to appoint a rep in the ‘Officer Category’ to carry out sales promotion activities under the SPE Act, he continues. “This is a cognizable offence for which Pfizer management may be punished. A complaint has been lodged before government of Maharashtra for violation of SPE Act.”