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PUDR seeks to highlight labour rights violation

Staff Reporter

“Issue behind the ongoing agitation at JNU"

PUDR released a report which is an indictment of varsity’s alleged exploitation of contract labour
The report says that workers were being paid Rs. 65 per day, less than legal minimum of Rs. 127

NEW DELHI: The People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has sought to turn the spotlight on labour rights violation that is at the heart of the ongoing agitation at Jawaharlal Nehru University that eventually culminated in the rustication of seven of its students recently.

At a press conference here, the PUDR also released a report titled “Fettered Lives” which is an indictment of the university’s alleged exploitation of contract labour on its campus.

The students protesting against the administration’s failure to ensure payment of minimum wages to construction workers employed at the School of Physical Sciences site in JNU were agitated when posters put up by them on this issue were torn off allegedly on orders of the administration.

Subsequently the students gheraoed the Registrar in his car for over six hours on February 19, resulting in the rustication of seven students.

Meanwhile, the JNU administration has washed its hands of the labour laws violation charge claiming it to be a responsibility of the Central Public Works Department that was executing the construction work at the School of Physical Sciences.

The report brought out by PUDR says that workers were being paid Rs. 65 per day, less than the legal minimum wage of Rs. 127.40.

PUDR member Bikram Batra said: “We want to bring attention to not just the non-payment of minimum wages to construction labour at JNU but also to the deplorable working conditions of other contractual labourers employed there such as gardeners, hostel mess workers and library workers. They have not even been provided with basic sanitation facilities such as toilets and access to clean drinking water in violation of the provisions of Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act.”

“The issue is complex and involves two matters. One is that of blatant violation of labour rights and labour laws by the JNU administration and the second is the severity of the punishment handed out to the students,” said PUDR member Gautam Navlakha.

JNU professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy added: “Unfortunately the issue of the Registrar’s gherao has been misrepresented by the media and has gathered more hype than the issue of labour rights violation and exploitation of contract workers by JNU administration.”

“Apart from the disproportionate punishment given to the students despite their rendering verbal and written apologies, the Vice-Chancellor is now also putting pressure on the president of JNUTA to either step down from his post or continue taking the student’s side. This is unprecedented and a blotch on JNU’s esteemed position and past glory. It represents a crackdown on democratic forces in JNU as on one hand JNU encourages its students to engage in social concerns and have a scientific temper but on the other it punishes them for precisely living up to their social responsibility. ” said Prof. Chenoy.

Calling for an end to the unrest at JNU, the PUDR has demanded immediate withdrawal of the rustication order by the Vice-Chancellor and institution of an independent inquiry into JNU’s violation of its statutory obligations towards contract labour employed by them in the capacity as “principal employer”.

Using the incident at JNU to highlight the greater need for unionisation of contractual labour in the unorganised sector, Mr. Navlakha said: “The students’ capacity to sustain this agitation is limited and the labour department too claims to be understaffed and already overburdened. Thus the only way out is to rethink the traditional approach and consider the role of a union for these labourers."

TUs write to V-C

Condemning the JNU administration’s decision to rusticate seven students, the All-India Central Council of Trade Unions has appealed to Vice-Chancellor B. B. Bhattacharya to withdraw the punishment orders and “respond positively to the students’ struggle to ensure that workers get their due”.

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