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| JU non-teaching staff calls off strike | | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, August 7,
The non-teaching employees of Jammu University have decided to suspend their strike for a fortnight. The ``pen down, tool down’’ strike had disrupted work in the university, including examinations, for over 10 days.
The worst hit were the students who had done their graduation and were waiting to enter the hallowed portals of the university. This happened because the admission process also got stalled as admission forms were not available. Nor were any officials available in their respective offices to receive these forms and process them.
A statement issued by those leading the agitation said that the strike was being suspended for 15 days. It added rather pompously that the university administration had sought a week’s time to look into their demands.
The fact of the matter is that the striking staff was told indirectly that conceding their demands was the beyond the brief of the university administration itself. Also, that if they did not call off their strike, the administration may be forced to declare holidays.
The declaration of holidays could have lead to a situation where the principle of ``no work, no pay’’ could have been applied and the wages of striking employees deducted.
The employees were demanding full implementation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) pay panel recommendations. Besides other allowances on the pattern of Central universities, they were also seeking payment of higher house rent allowance (HRA). In fact, their leaders were insisting on payment of HRA at the rate of 20 per cent of the basic salary. Presently, the staff is getting HRA at the rate of 15 per cent of their basic salary as is the norm in Jammu & Kashmir.
Incidentally, the best paid employees of the state government are those working in the civil secretariat. However, even these so-called ``blue-eyed boys of the government’’ do not get HRA at the rate of 20 per cent. Some civil secretariat employees working in the finance department have a say in the determination of allowances for the state employees, as also the university staff, but they themselves do not get 20 per cent HRA.
At one level, therefore, the non-teaching employees were seeking better allowances than even the civil secretariat employees. They were told clearly by the teachers of the university, mainly those in the administration, that they were in no position to concede the demands.
Jammu University is a state university and the allowances given to the staff are more or less on a par with those given to the state employees. If the university employees were to be treated differently and given higher allowances, it ``would have a profound effect on other employees’’ across the board, a university teacher pointed out.
One demand that the non-teaching staff have been raising is the payment of ``transport allowance’’, something that is not being given presently to any section of university employees, including the teaching faculty. The striking staff had demanded that the ``transport allowance’’ should be paid on the pattern of the Central Government employees.
This could mean the payment of transport allowance as a percentage of their basic salary. If this demand were to be conceded, lakhs of state government employees would also start clamouring for the grant of similar benefits.
A senior university academician, when asked to comment on the strike by the non-teaching staff, said the strike leaders had perhaps realized now that their demands could not be conceded. As such, instead of prolonging the strike and inviting disciplinary action, they have decided to find an honourable way out by suspending the strike for now.
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