With the committee constituted in Madurai Kamaraj University to decide on reducing the temporary workforce yet to make a decision, around 300 casual labourers working in various departments have alleged that they were neither paid nor assigned any work for the past three months.
According to university authorities, there were 624 workers engaged on a temporary basis, of which 293 are casual labourers (CLR), engaged on the basis of daily wages, and another 331 casual labourers on a monthly consolidated pay (CPCLR). After G. Arumugam took charge as Registrar (in charge), a committee was formed in March to analyse whether there was actually a need for more than 600 temporary workers and formulate a plan to terminate the services of “excess workers.”
A casual labour said ever since the committee was formed, all the 293 CLRs had been rendered jobless. “They have reassigned the CPCLR workers to different departments to carry out our work. For instance, the CPCLR employees working in hostels are carrying out work in examination section,” he said.Another CLR employee, who has been working for the past seven years, said that for the past three months they had not been allowed to sign the attendance register. “It is unfair to keep us waiting like this. Let them decide and tell us whether they will retain us or not,” he said. He added that the condition of many working in Directorate of Distance Education was worse since they had not received salary for around six months.
According to him, while there are many CLR employees with more than seven years of experience, some employees recruited in recent years were made CPCLR employees by those who were at the helm of affairs. “I joined for a daily wage of ₹ 120. Only recently the salary was increased to ₹ 268 per day. We work for such paltry sums with the hope that our services will be regularised some day. Now, if they ask us to leave, where will we go?” he said.
When contacted, a senior university official said Higher Education Secretary Sunil Paliwal had told that a decision would be taken by the new Vice-Chancellor, as and when the university got one. “As for as their employment goes, majority of them are in 89-day contract, which was kept renewed. Technically, we have not terminated their employment. We have just not renewed the contract,” he said.
