Contract staff denied jobs following labour strike at NIT Calicut

Kozhikode: Around 300 labourers who were employed on contract basis for sanitary and security jobs at the National Institute of Technology-Calicut have been asked not to turn up for jobs anymore. A set of new conditions in recruitement has forced the contract workers engaged in sanitation, security and drivers to go on an indefinite strike. NIT-C authorities have reportedly informed the companies employing the staff that those who took part in the strike shall not be assigned duty.

The union representatives said that the authorities are not even willing to talk to them. ''We don't know what the authorities think. They are not ready to talk to us or meet. We have just had a discussion with the security supervisor. They are not ready to accept our request to renew the contract of all labourers,'' said Manoj Kumar, convenor of the coordination of the labour unions.

CITU, INTUC and BMS unions were part of the strike. The unions have warned of strong agitation if no solution is arrived at by Wednesday. At present there are 312 labourers working in the NIT-C in different categories. Among these, 116 are security staff, 184 are sanitary workers and a few of them are engaged as drivers. Most of them have been working for decades and their contracts were renewed annually.

Recently the NIT set the age limit to 55, instead of 60. Also 20 per cent of jobs were reserved for ex-military persons and 10 per cent for women. Once these criteria came into effect, a total of 169 labourers risked losing their jobs. The labourers had registered their protests against the new conditions and and lodged complaints to the authority. Meanwhile, the contracting companies conducted a recruitment programme on Monday inviting applications from the freshers. This led to further protests.By evening, the companies informed the labourers who were part of the strike on Monday not to come for duty the next day. This provoked them and labourers have started an indefinite strike under the joint workers union.

''The agencies want to make money recruiting new labourers avoiding workers with decades long experience. The NIT-C authority is supporting this. We are all from the NIT neighborhoods, this job is our sole source of income. It is not at all justifiable to tell these people to go home one fine morning,'' said Vinod Kumar, NIT-C Security and Sanitation workers Union (CITU) leader.
Human Rights activist Shareef Malayamma has lodged a complaint in Human Rights Commission citing the denial of rights of the labourers by the NIT authority. When Onmanorama contacted the Media Cell of NIT-C for an official response on the labour issues going on in the campus, Dr. Sunitha MS, the Chairperson of the cell responded that they didn't get an official information yet and hence they could not give a response.

As a solution to solve the shortage for labourers for cleaning and security jobs, the NIT authorities are learnt to have directed Class D staff including office attenders, senior attenders, Junior Assistance have to do the cleaning jobs. The decision was made in an emergency meeting, called by the Registrar, Asst. Registrar (Estate) and Joint Registrar. Another arrangement the Institute made urgently is assigning the ex-military staff men belonging to category Class B to do the security job.