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6 contract workers of @TISSpeak who worked as hostel attendants in the out of campus Surjog and RCF hostels have been given termination notices and asked not to come to work from May 31st.
This is going against the advisories issued by the Labour Secretary, and the Chief Labour Commissioner of GoI asking employers to not terminate any contract/casual workers during the pandemic.
The contract workers have since 2018 been fighting a case in the Central Government Industrial Tribunal against the institute, demanding pay increment and regularization. Dismissing them while the case is pending goes against Section 33 of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
In fact, the workers' union had brought a stay order from the CGIT last year saying as much. TISS management thus is also in violation of this order.
The justification given by the deputy registar is that it was the lease for the hostels expires on May 31st and since the institute does not plan on renewing its lease agreement, it won't need the services of the workers. Was @TissUnion consulted before taking this decision?
TISS has been mistreating its workers for a long time now. There are allegations of sexual harassment against a supervisor. In Oct 2019, TISS refused to hire back Sunita Salve, an employee of 14 years, after she came back from medical leave, having recovered from TB.
TISS Dining halls are understaffed, workers are paid abysmally low salaries (the overtime rate is Rs 12.5/hour - workers are required to do OT regularly) and work under extremely stressful conditions. This was a note prepared by a committee formed by @TissUnion.
Things came to a head in March 2020 when the contract workers went on a two-day strike in March 2020, in the middle of admissions week. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/institute-which-talks-about-rights-not-paying-employees-minimum-wages-says-union/article31071937.ece
If it TISS truly cares about creating a "just society that promotes and protects dignity, equality, social justice and human rights for all", it must take back the workers and treat its staff and students with respect. It must practice what it preaches.
I'm not sure what action the students can take right now. So I'm only tagging all the TISS accounts I follow. Apologies if you did not want to see this: @FahadBombay @Shefali_sherry @poonam_a20 @LayanardoDaVnci @trisyllablename @anticastecat @vaishali_gj @ramakumarr @tjayaraman
