NLU Delhi: Hundreds support student petition for campus workers’ jobs

NEW DELHI: A section of students of the National Law University, Delhi issued a statement expressing their solidarity with cleaning staff who, they allege, were “wrongfully” removed from service. The students have been protesting for 60 days.

Endorsing the cause of the contractual workers, the statement condemns the “unjust treatment meted out to the workers by the university administration.”

The statement has so far gathered over 600 signatures including those of prominent lawyers, activists and journalists. Academics from Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Ambedkar University-Delhi have supported the protesters and the workers.

Around 40 students launched a protest on February 10, 2020. Their demand was that the 55 housekeeping staff must get their jobs back. They were laid off when the university signed a new contract with a different service provider.

The contractual workers have been protesting for two months.

Earlier in February, the labour minister of Delhi, Gopal Rai sought a “factual report” from NLU, Delhi which was later submitted on February 25, 2020. However, the students are yet to get a response from the AAP minister.

Workers’ predicament

Highlighting the plight of workers, the statement said: “The workers have had no source of income for over six weeks. They have also not yet received their full salaries for December 2019...The workers are seeing their hard-earned savings drained in order to keep this protest for their rights going.”

The statement pointed out that several workers have been working for over 10 years in the university and 76 percent of them are also the sole earning members with no additional financial support whatsoever.

Legality of termination

The Vice-Chancellor of NLU-D, Ranbir Singh told Hindustan Times: “These are outsourced services. We hire a contractor and then they hire the workers. Since the contractor had not been changed in the last 12 years, we were forced to hire a new one.”

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