Faculty at the Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education have alleged that the deemed university has been forcing them to report for work on all days during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A few faculty, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said many of the faculty members, particularly who are 50-plus years of age, were worried reporting for work as a faculty had recently tested positive for COVID-19.
The university management forcing them to report for work on all days was against the University Grants Commission’s and Ministry of Human Resource Development’s guidelines, which have said that universities should ask their faculty and non-teaching staff to work from home till July 31.
That the management threatening them to report for work or go on leave had affected the morale of the faculty, who could very well sit at home to prepare lesson plan on online content, as suggested by the Commission and Ministry.
A representative of the university management, on condition of anonymity, said the Institute followed the Commission’s and Ministry’s guidelines in toto. There was no question of any violation or deviation from the instruction and the allegation that was levelled was being done with the intention to tarnish the institution’s reputation.
The institution had in its July 2 communication said it would function with 50% staff on turn basis.
Heads of departments, the Vice-Chancellor, registrar, controller of examination and other heads would carry out important academic and administrative function. At present, the institute was in the process of granting provisional admission to those candidates who had applied online and to carry out the task only the admission committee members were present in the campus.
As for a faculty reporting COVID-19 positive, the institution had closed the floor housing the positive faculty’s department and carried out disinfection measures.
The representative further said that institution had, as per the Commission’s and Ministry’s guideline, awarded attendance to those faculty who had established that they were unable to report for work because they were either quarantined or went into self-quarantine.
Therefore there was no question of the institution violating any guideline to force faculty to report for work, the representative added.
