Contract teaching staff on strike for 20 days, now seek regularisation

Hyderabad: The 1,445 university contract teachers who have been on strike across the 12 universities in the State for more than 20 days now are a worried lot that their demands will be set aside once the election code kicks in for the Telangana assembly polls. They aver the government has to initiate the process for regularizing them and make a beginning to cross the myriad hurdles the process is bound to face.

Most sections of the society have received some benefit or the other after the formation of Telangana but we contract teaching staff of universities have not received any benefit so far, said B. Rajesh Khanna, faculty member and convener of Telangana All Universities Contract Teachers Association (T-AUCTA), airing their woes.

The staff though not holding a united protest are however in one voice seeking regularization of their services. The government is opening new engineering colleges sans any permanent staff in line with its promise to open them, he said.

The staff say many of them have all the qualifications of NET, SET, PhD, as per UGC, AICTE and PCI (Pharmacy Council of India) norms and cite the lack of regular recruitment in universities after the formation of State. With more than 15 to 20 years of experience they say and having awaited posting for regular jobs as faculty they have no other option open to them now.

Procedural lapse or deviation in their recruitment:

While some of the staff were appointed sans qualification as per UGC norms they have secured them after regularization. This it is said is more evident in the non technical universities. While in the technical universities of the 1,445 staff 545 are employed in self finance courses which are funded by the student’s fees while the remaining 900 are working in sanctioned posts.

“While recruiting us on contract basis the 100 point roster was followed in the technical universities and rule of reservation was followed as required by reservation norms are part of the 1,445 teachers awaiting regularization now. While recruiting us proper notification was issued in the newspapers and we gave interviews. Hence by default we happen to have that composition in the JNTUH, RGUKT (Basar), Osmania and Kakatiya engineering college. This data is with the State government and the Council for Higher Education department now. We also satisfy the unit wise roster of a college or group of colleges at a place as a unit for implementation of reservations which the central government brought in 2018 before the 2019 general polls. It is the conventional universities like Osmania, Telangana, Palamuru universities where the reservation norm has not been observed,” Rajesh Khanna said.  

The entire recruitment process was halted owing to apathy of governments. The teaching post in a university is open to anyone across the country that is why employees who originally hail from AP were not sent back from universities unlike other departments post bifurcation of the State. Delay in decision making to even filing counters to  legal challenges like the unit wise roster in the Supreme Court by governments has resulted in this condition. The other requirement we don’t satisfy as per UGC norms is lack of their nominee while conducting our recruitment. This, the state government says will be cited to cancel our recruitment as candidates from outside the state can also approach the courts. As of now my salary is Rs 50,000 but a degree college faculty gets more than me. A newly recruited assistant professor is paid Rs 90,000 including all allowances, said Rajesh Khanna with 15 years experience behind him.

The state government’s attempt to constitute a common recruitment board to fill vacancies in state government universities by holding exams through TSPSC has only added to the confusion. Eye brows are being raised over bringing universities which are autonomous bodies into the recruitment process in which the government is involved.

The teachers are however citing the example of the regularization of 24,000 employees in the electricity department. When the government sought to regularize the outsourcing employees who were working in the department the court struck it down. After this the government absorbed them into the corporation which is an autonomous body.

“We are asking the government to write to the UGC and seek exemption for once citing lack of recruitment for the past 13 years. The government is opening engineering colleges with guest faculty and is sending the few senior faculty available as principals to them. There is no clarity on the recruitment of staff as such. Why can’t we be regularized? Palla Rajeshwar Reddy MLC and B. Vinod Kumar, planning commission, vice chairman have told us that the CM has been appraised of the issue and are citing salary burden if we are regularized as UGC will not bear our salary burden,” Rajesh Khanna said.

Salary burden, a hiccup in taking decision:

One of the hurdles the teachers say the government is citing in regularizing them is the burden of their salary. Being paid as per UGC scales pay revision happens once in 10 years and the burden of the teaching staff is shared by the centre and the State in the ratio of 50:50 for the first five years between the centre and state for the first five years and the state government entirely for the next five years in 2019 by the Modi government.

The teachers say they are seeking some decision like the government did in the case of degree, polytechnic and junior college lecturers by taking June 2nd, 2014 as the cut-off date. The government’s in Himachal, Orissa, WB and Punjab have absorbed some faculty applying a cut-off date. The teachers are citing these as a precedent. Decisions were taken to regularize VRAs, anganwadis will get PRC benefits and they say the government which brought in G.O 16 for regularization of contract staff took time to even file reply to the legal challenge for it in 2018 until 2021. This they say finally paved the way for regularization of some contract employees in 2023.

We know that our recruitment will also face legal problems but the government has to find a way out, Rajesh Khanna said.

As per law recruitment has to happen in universities the contract staff in other government departments were regularized which you are well aware of. As per G.O 16 when we wanted to recruit some went to the Supreme Court, we resolved it and regularized the staff. These people are also seeking a solution like that. But a university is different from government departments. Norms were not followed while recruiting them.  All these contract staff were not given permanent jobs from the time of Chandrababu Naidu government for nearly 30 years and are on the verge of retirement now. We are willing to accommodate them but laws are a hurdle. We are thinking of a way out, said B. Vinod Kumar, vice chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board.

Asked what was done on this for the past nine years, he said, “We are weighing different options and are solving problems one by one. As early as possible we are planning what to do before the election code kicks in.”

 Views of teachers unions:

Prof. B. Manohar, president, OUTA (Osmania University Teachers Association) says, “The government should work out modalities and regularize the contract staff that are being employed in various universities. They could be guest faculty, teaching in self finance, contract or even part time and should be regularized as they have been working for 15 to 20 years now. Like the degree teachers, the modalities can be worked out by the government.”

Prof. Sujatha Surepally, of sociology from Satavahana University says, “I feel regular recruitment should be initiated in which these teachers can be given weightage or regularize those with qualifications. There are those who are above 40 or even 50 years now. But standards should not be sacrificed. The existing staff can be given job security for working for so long. Retirement age decision is also pending.”

Private universities which number 14 now have received an impetus post the formation of the state while public ones were neglected.