There was some respite to the tug-of-war between the employees and the Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University on Tuesday as the employees withdrew their strike following assurances by some Syndicate members who worked as intermediaries.
The employees were to launch an indefinite strike from Tuesday as Vice-Chancellor M. Abdul Salam had taken a stance on the issue of suspending employees’ union president P. Omer on the charges of speaking to the media. The strike plan was called off after Registrar T.A. Abdul Majeed issued an order stating that the employees’ demands would be agreed to.
The university agreed to revoke the suspension of Mr. Omer unconditionally. There would be an investigation into the situations leading to his suspension.
Syndicate members V.P. Abdul Hameed, P.M. Niyaz, Abid Hussain Thangal, T.P. Ahamed, and K. Viswanath told the joint forum of employees that they would find a solution in favour of the employees. The Syndicate panel also assured the employees that the dearness allowance (DA) arrears due to them would be released soon.
The employees were told that the days on which they struck work in October last year would be treated as ‘leave.’
Dr. Salam said he was being hunted down by certain sections, including Syndicate members. Denying the allegations of taking double wages, he said he was willing to quit the post. Most employees on the campus were slaves of the unions. The employees and unions turned against him because of the reforms he initiated, he added.
