What is happening now regarding the decision taken by Anna University to outsource non-teaching staff on a daily wage basis?
For several decades Chennai based Anna University or AU has been producing top quality engineers. Majority of these engineers have reached top positions in their careers.
Point is that AU has announced initially that it would hire teaching and non-teaching faculty on a daily basis through outsourcing mode. Inspite of AU making it clear that it would hire just non-teaching faculty on a contract basis, the decision did not go down well with many academicians. The university received backlash from the academicians or the stakeholders
It must be recalled that on 21st November the Registrar of AU issued a circular and according to the circular only the non-teaching temporary staff would be appointed on daily wages or consolidated pay on an outsourcing basis. The circular added that if required the temporary staff members would be engaged for projects duration and their daily wages or consolidated pay would be met by project fund. It must be noted that the decision by AU angered 1100 plus presently working non-teaching staff.
Details about non-teaching staffs at AU:
There are more than 1100 non-teaching staff working on a daily wage or consolidated pay in the 4 campuses like College of Engineering or CEG Guindy, AC College of Technology or AC Tech, Madras Institute of Technology or MIT, Chromepet and School of Planning an Architecture or SAP. Not only these, there are also 250 permanent non-teaching staff who are also working in AU now.
It was later brought out by a non-teaching staff member in AU that they have been working in the university for many years and have played a role in the development of the university. The non-teaching staff member spoke about how AU that has withdrew the announcement of outsourcing faculty appointments would use the same process for non-teaching staffs also
It must be taken into account that many lab technicians etc also play a role in teaching the students. It is true that non-teaching staff have contributed in their capacity and they need more job certainty in the wake of the latest announcement by the registrar.
Despite working for many years in AU, their jobs haven`t been regularised yet. This was according to the non-teaching staff. Benefits like Provident Fund or PF, or cash leaves etc are not provided to these non-teaching staff. I is now said that with the recent announcement from AU the plight of 900 non-teaching staff on daily wages/ consolidated pay remains uncertain.
