AISA STANDS IN SUPPORT WITH JURSEA EMPLOYEES SITTING IN HUNGER STRIKE- ABHAY BHATTACHARYA AND NILU DAS AISA DEMANDS THE IMMEDIATE END OF CONTRACTUAL LABOUR INSIDE JU CAMPUS AND THESE RESEARCH SCHEME EMPLOYEES BE MADE PERMANENT EMPLOYEES WITH ALL BENEFITS. ABHAY BHATTACHARYA AND NILU DAS are currently sitting in a HUNGER STRIKE outside Central Library (they have been there since last afternoon) to protest against unlawful and whimsical deduction of 10% of their salary every month since October, and also demand their due wages that have been deducted because they were not present on holidays- May Day and during the pujas. They have been giving deputations to the Vice Chancellor, Registar and Finance Officer since 10th June this year, but the authority has not resolved the issue, instead they have been shown the doors, saying that since they didnot receive an appointment letter from the Registar so they are not permanent employees of the university. The JURSEA employees face numerous problems due to the contractual basis of their employment- they can be terminated with immediate effect without any compensation or notice at the whim of the Project heads (in one case a female employee previously working with SOES for 14 years was terminated from her contract without any prior notice, and her salary was instead given to a new employee whom the Project head preferred). Thus these people even after working for 20 years are constantly under the fear of losing their jobs. The JURSEA employees are made to work for 15-16 hours a day, without any fixed holidays and weekends, which is a clear violation of not only the labour acts but also the controversial CONTRACT LABOUR (Regulation) Act, 1970. Also violating the acts are the fact that they dont enjoy any pension, benefits or assistance from the university, which is supposed to be the principal employeer. The JURSEA employees are forced to work almost like household maids by the some of the professors, who even make them do house works for free. The JURSEA employees are given their vouchers by Dr. Dipankar Chakraborty who is more than 65years old, and should be retired by now, while the present Director of the school (SOES) Dr. Joydeep Mukherjee, who has the lawful right has no say in this regard and this impasse has been going on for a long time as claimed by JURSEA. The student community must protest against the contractualization of labour which disincentivise labour- thus a common agreement among permanent, contractual, wage labour inside campus on working hours, wages, benefits is not possible, and so is organising under one association. The JURSEA is not alone in its fight, last year, we found out that the sanitary workers in the campus are appointed on contractual basis and face the same problems- no fixed pay, no job security, no benefits, etc. The construction workers inside the campus are also part of this exploitative contractualization labour market- no safety measures, no health benefits in case of accident, no right to unionize, etc. The university is now hiring private security guards from private companies also on contractual basis, and soon after some years these people will also face the same problem as these JURSEA employees. Thus making it easier for the concerned authority to exploit them as we are seeing now. The neo-liberal economic onslaught inside the campus is becoming rampant and this is the time to stand up against it. Are we simply going to take pictures of the fasting protestors, or we are going to fight alongside for their cause. The JURSEA is a part of our academia and it is imperative that we take their cause as one of the student communitys agenda own. Let us fight with Abhay Bhattacharya and Nilu Das and with the JURSEA for a contractual-labour free campus!! Let us all be there, beside them today, 28th November, outside CL and let the authority know loud and clear, that the workers and students, it is so intent on exploiting and oppressing are marching forward together.. Arumita Mitra Samarjit Mukherjee Sudhanya Pal Abhishek Aisa Santanu Saha Saikat Maity Ipsita Paul Ranajoy Sen Gupta Ritam Mj Ujjal Dalui Srimati Ghosal Pratik Sengupta Soumita Gayen Anirban Samadder Sreeja Kundu Sushmita Bhowmick Kriti Roy Jahangir Hossain Deep Thakur Maitreyo Bhattacharya Roy Smi Prosenjit Mondal Sudip Bhattacharyya Prondipan Mondal Uttama Ray Nilasis Bose Sourav Roy Madhurima Bakshi Dibyokamal Mitra
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 05:06:40 +0000
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