Contempt notice to MU for not paying contractual staff equal wages

Mumbai: The University of Mumbai (MU), in at least three recent cases, has been pulled up for violating rules pertaining to its employees. It had to pay a fine of around ₹32 lakh to the Employees Provident Fund Office for not paying employees their PF on time, and one of ₹5 lakh to the industrial court for wrongful termination of 113 contractual employees. Now, the employees’ union has sent a contempt notice to the former vice-chancellor and pro vice-chancellor for non-implementation of the Supreme Court order on ‘equal work equal pay’ for the university’s 295 contractual employees.

MU has been employing all its non-teaching staff on a contractual basis, as the state government has created only eight permanent posts in the last 30 years. While the regular employees are paid by the state, MU pays its temporary employees. Non-teaching staff members occupy various positions across different departments in MU, including those of system programmers, peons, and proofreaders.

The contempt notice was served on May 3 to the entire management council, but the authorities did not take the matter seriously. The SC had directed that “employees shall be paid a minimum pay scale from July 2022, corresponding to the pay scale of regularly appointed employees without prejudice to the rights of the parties”. However, according to a management council member, the university is looking at initially paying the basic amount and then planning to approach the government for a feasible solution.

Milind Tulaskar, president of the Mumbai Vidyapeeth Kamgar Sanghatana, said, “In the ‘equal work equal pay’ case, after getting approval from the apex court, we served a contempt notice on MU that included the names of former vice-chancellor Suhas Pednekar, pro vice-chancellor Ravindra Kulkarni and all management council members. The university has not complied with the order in conscious defiance of the apex court.”

Tulaskar added that the matter was first taken up by the Bombay high court, where MU lost the case and subsequently appealed in the apex court. “After the apex court order, MU had to start paying basic salary, DA and HRA to all the contractual employees but failed to do so,” he said. “Currently, they earn only ₹15,000 to 19,000 per month, which is not enough to survive in an expensive metro like Mumbai.”

Supriya Karande, senior senate member, said that instead of improving its human resources policy, MU was wasting students’ money on paying fines. “The SC’s directive on equal pay for equal work aims to ensure that contractual staff members receive fair compensation,” she said. “MU’s reluctance to comply with the court’s order is cause for concern and highlights the need for strict enforcement of labour laws to ensure that employees are treated fairly.”

MU officials were not available for comment.