SHILLONG, Aug 17: North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) vice-chancellor Prabha Shankar Shukla on Wednesday said the university will submit a proposal on the regularisation of the service of casual workers to the Union Ministry of Education.
He told reporters that it is up to the ministry to take a call on the regularisation of the service of the employees and that the university cannot take such decisions.
Shukla said the NEHU has already implemented the central minimum wages for all the casual workers in different categories since 2018.
He also said the variable dearness allowance is being implemented annually on the order of the Ministry of Labour.
Shukla also said the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employment State Insurance (ESI) scheme are paid before the 15th of every month as mandated.
NEHU public relations officer Davidson Pyngrope said the Negotiation Committee (NC) is compiling the data of the casual employees on the Shillong main campus, Tura campus and at the NEHU guest house in Guwahati.
The compiling of these data will take some time, he added. “We will first examine and then shortlist only those casual employees who are entitled after compiling the data. The names of only the deserving casual employees will be submitted to the ministry for regularisation,” Pyngrope said.
The decision of the ministry in this regard would be final, he said.
NEHU assistant registrar, Ivan Lyngdoh pointed to the Supreme Court rulings in 1993 and 2006 on the regularisation of the services of casual employees.
“The casual employees will require fulfilling all the criteria laid down by the Supreme Court in its orders for regularisation,” he said.
NEHU pro-VC Henry Lamin said the university is trying its best to help the casual employees.
“But it is not possible for the university to fulfil their demand to immediately regularise their service. Therefore, we do not want to make any promise which we cannot fulfil,” he said.
Replying to a query, Shukla said they are yet to decide on the action to be taken against the casual employees if they refuse to call off their strike.
According to official data, NEHU’s casual employees include 553 unskilled, 625 semi-skilled, 734 skilled and 806 highly skilled workers.
The monthly pay of an unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled casual employee is Rs 19,202, Rs 21,443, Rs 24,084 and Rs 26,936 respectively. The casual employees of all categories also get 13% EPF and 3% ESI.
The casual employees under the banner of the All North Eastern Hill University Workers’ Union have been agitating outside the VC chamber due to the failure of the university authority to regularise their services.
The union’s president, Napoleon Mawphniang said they are demanding the regularisation of the services of the contractual employees and for the implementation of equal pay for equal work.
There are more than 700 contractual employees working on both the Shillong and Tura campuses of the university.
