7 STUDENTS EXPELLED FOR MINIMUM WAGE PROTESTS !!

JNUSU ON INDEFINATE HUNGER STRIKE...6th DAY TODAY !

On 14th November 2006, fifteen construction workers approached JNUSU with the complaint that instead of the 70 rupees they had been promised, they were being forced to accept 65 rupees a day, approximately 1.50 USD for an 8-hour working day. The legal minimum wage for unskilled workers in Delhi was Rs. 127.40 per day (from April 2007, the legal minimum wage has increased to 158 Rs/day). The very next day, the contractors threw these fifteen workers out of work, also refusing to pay them for work done in November. So as to determine the extent of the violations, JNUSU undertook a detailed survey at construction sites on campus. Not only were minimum wages being violated across the campus but there was also an absence of basic facilities like drinking water; no muster rolls were found nor were any crèche facilities available to the workers’ children.

When faced with the demand to pay minimum wages, the contractors Chaudhary and Jiyalal Malhotra stopped work on their sites, for which they blamed JNUSU – a blatant attempt to intimidate workers and students, and shirk responsibility. Work stopped and all the construction workers, being dependent on their daily wages, had nowhere to go. Most had worked for only a week, and have as yet received no payment.

Faced with looming food insecurity and the approaching winter, JNUSU decides to set up a community kitchen. We receive overwhelming support from several quarters: mess workers [who kickstart the kitchen], Mamu, Shombhu and Teflas Canteens [for lending us vessels], JNU Security [for daily transport of food supplies], JNUKA and JNUTA. Each evening, students and workers cook together in the open space behind SSS I [and later near the SCS building.]

Yet, the process is not easy, and the anger is often directed towards the students. The stalemate continues, still the contractor remains adamant and the administration pleads helplessness. Its effectiveness as a tactic can be seen by the fact that of the 60 families employed on the site, none of them remain.

The Contract Labour [Regulation and Abolition] Act, 1970 states that:
“The contractor is required to pay wages and a duty is cast on him to ensure disbursement of wages in the presence of the authorized representative of the Principal Employer. In case of failure on the part of the contractor to pay wages either in part or in full, the Principal Employer is liable to pay the same.” Despite a sustained struggle by students and workers, the JNU administration as Principal Employer took no concrete steps to enforce worker’s rights. Worse still, the contractor-JNU administration nexus stepped up its oppression, destroyed their temporary hutments without letting them know (it is illegal to break them without advance notice) and finally compelled these workers to leave JNU.

On 18 December 2006, JNUSU gave a memorandum of demands to the administration. Six months later, the following demands have still not been met:

[1] Immediate wage payment according to minimum wage rates.
[2] We strongly condemn the violent destruction of workers jhuggis by the contractor-administration nexus and demand that compensation be paid to workers
[3] An independent enquiry committee be constituted comprising of both JNUTA and JNUSU representatives to look into various malpractices of the engineering department and administration.
[4] We once again demand a time bound assurance on the following commitments:
· Details of all work taking place inside JNU, including estimates and names of contractors, must be provided.
· The records of work which is being done with public money be made transparent and available for all
· Muster rolls to be issued and displayed at worksites and a copy made available on demand.
· Proper medical facilities along with worksite facilities be provided to workers for their period of work inside JNU. The JNU Health center facilities should be extended to the workers.
· Issuance of job cards
· Fix days for wage payments for workers at each site.
[5] We demand a complete refund of the expenses incurred in the running of the community kitchen.

It took over two months to get a response from the administration on the memorandum. The response that was ultimately given is no more than eyewash, failing to seriously address any of the issues raised by the students union. JNU Administration believes that it has neither legal nor moral responsibility towards those working on campus, nor does it seek to make the contractors accountable. Not only did they deny their responsibility as principal employers, they also denied access to muster rolls and other public documents. Their refusal to look into corruption and faulty construction was accompanied by a complete silence on a need for a mechanism to ensure compliance with labour law.

As we found, these were not isolated incidents, but the problem of underpayment and casualisation is extremely widespread. In December, JNUSU was approached by a group of safai karamcharis and gardeners, employed by the private firm Vayudoot, who are being paid far below the legal minimum wage. Instead of the legal wage of at least Rs 3312 for safai karamcharis (unskilled workers) and Rs. 3736 for gardeners (skilled workers), they have been promised Rs. 2500. Here again, for raising their voices, wages have been delayed, depressed and denied. 46 gardeners have been thrown out and safai karamcharis are working under the imminent threat of retrenchment.

More workers approached the students with their grievances, the electricity department workers were also retrenched and went on a relay hunger-strike. The administration refused to even talk to them while they sat outside, waited patiently and their strike continued for more than 45 days. The administration continued to refuse even meeting with the JNUSU. So, we file an RTI. We demanded all details regarding tenders, contracts, muster-rolls (records of wage payments) and the break-up for material cost and labour cost in the contracts since the year 2000. This RTI was filed on the 19th of January, and so the deadline for providing information was 5 pm, February 19, 2007. The JNU administration made no effort to contact JNUSU and provide the requested documents. Some documents were provided in early March which expose the irregularities and illegal contracts signed by the administration.

In February 2007, the union was also approached by mess workers of the new hostel messes. These are messes in Lohit, Chandrabhaga and Mahi Mandavi hostels run through private contract. Not only was minimum wage being violated (Rs. 2100 for helpers and Rs. 3100 for cooks instead of Rs. 3312 and Rs. 4500) but the contracts themselves were found to be illegal in that less than minimum wages were stated on the contract itself [signed by the Dean of Students Welfare], and from this further money was siphoned off by the contractor. The workers complained that their demand for better worksite facilities was never responded to by the contractors, who also siphoned off the cooking materials they were supposed to provide.
Even the manual scavengers, employed through Naya Savera (an NGO), are being gravely underpaid and work without any safety equipment like gloves. Their garbage carts have deflated tires and they are routinely threatened and abused.

While several workers have been retrenched, threatened, abused and beaten, JNUSU did manage to make some interventions and enforce minimum wages on campus. The mess workers are now receiving minimum wage and their illegal contracts have been rewritten. The Vayudoot workers are also being paid minimum wages and money is not deducted for uniforms anymore. Arrears amounting close to 2 lakh rupees have been paid after students put pressure on the administration and the contractors. Although construction workers are not getting the legal minimum wage, the prevailing rate on campus for them had gone up.

On Monday 19th February, 2007, after a 3-day Sit-in by JNUSU with the electricity workers at the Administration Block, a demonstration was organized at 1 pm to protest against the injustice done to all the workers on this campus and the tearing of JNUSU posters at the admin block. The previous night, students had put up engaging and witty posters on the wall of the Ad. Block had painted slogans on newspaper sheets which were placed on the stairs at the administration building and all the schools on campus, declaring ‘Don’t Step Over Workers’ Rights’. This was in the best creative traditions of the student movement and was subtle satire at its best – and surely deserved a mature response from the University authorities. Instead, Early next morning, Registrar Avais Ahmed ordered the posters to bewashed out and torn immediately, and repeated requests for a meeting with authorities to discuss the workers’ issue were denied outright.

Incidentally, Avais Ahmed ordered for the posters to be torn half-an-hour before the visiting delegation from Spain accompanied by the Spanish Vice-President arrived. In response, the JNUSU called for a protest demonstration at 1 pm the same day. After 4 hours at the demonstration, the Registrar still refused to talk to the peacefully protesting students as he left the building. Agitated students surrounded the car and requested him to negotiate on the issue. The security was called in and tried to restrain the students with ropes.

February 19 was an unfortunate day in the history of our University. The events of that day arose out of a closing down of dialogue on part of Administration with the students and workers on the crucial issue of workers’ minimum wages. The JNU student movement has never indulged in any manner of intimidation or violence, and rather has always firmly upheld justice, dialogue and democracy. The JNU administration, on the other hand, signed illegal contracts, shielded systemic corruption, oppressed workers, not taken responsibility as Principal Employer and targeted students. They have violated several labour laws repeatedly as well as the Right to Information Act.

For the previous three months, too, the JNU student community has raised the issue of violation of workers’ minimum wages with exemplary humanism and responsibility: organizing a Community Kitchen for retrenched workers; relying on the letter and spirit of labour laws of our land and JNU’s own regulations; painstakingly documenting the wage rates of working conditions of daily wage workers on campus; and ensuring payment of wages and arrears at legally stipulated rates to various sets of workers through physical presence and vigilance of students. Most of these, ideally, are tasks that the University authorities are mandated to take up on their own responsibility, but for the past three months, it was done by students with enormous investment of effort and energy; inspite of threats issued by the contractors. Despite repeated appeals, however, the students received nothing but vague oral assurances (which would invariably be violated) and no written assurance on part of the JNU Administration, acknowledging their legal responsibility as the Principal Employer to ensure legal minimum wages and proper working conditions to workers. Rather, there was an effort to keep public documents like muster rolls from being made available for scrutiny, and even a demand under the RTI Act had received no response. The RTI application was filed on 19th January and it took the administration more than 40 days to respond. The documents accessed through the RTI application confirmed worst fears. Agreements made were below minimum wages in several cases and over years, the amounts sanctioned by JNU administration had even decreased over the years. JNUSU is in possession of actual documents of contracts made by the administration, which completely expose the false claims made to cover up labour law violations.

This was the situation that led to the highly unfortunate impasse with the Registrar. At no point did the students have any intention of intimidation – the overriding demand was one for dialogue on the workers’ issue. While an impasse did occur, it would have been broken as soon as a proposal for productive and positive meeting with authorities to discuss the workers’ rights had been agreed to. Unfortunately, this did not happen. However, it was eventually students who broke the impasse, unconditionally at the behest of the faculty.

A meeting to resolve the worker’s issues once and for all was promised for the next day. However, what began was a systematic crackdown on the student’s movement on campus. The very next day, 3 JNUSU office bearers, Dhananjay, Sandeep and Jyotsna were suspended alongwith the GSCASH representative, Pooja and 5 other students were suspended and their studentship was withdrawn with immediate effect. This was an unprecedented assault since no inquiry was conducted to implicate them and they targeted inspite of the presence of atleast a 100 other students and workers. The JNUSU Council took collective responsibility for the protest on the 19th of February and passed a resolution against the individual targeting of students which was reiterated at a University GBM that followed. Apologies were given by individual students as well, and after much effort, all the suspensions were revoked by the end of March and the administration relented. Or so we thought.

On the 26th of May, Saturday, a Naya Savera worker Vinod, was brutally beaten up by the Chief Security officer M. S. Cheema and other Group 4 security guards on the suspicion of stealing a cellphone. He was detained for 3 hours, thrashed, 5000 rupees were extracted from his contractor (who would deduct the money from his salary) and then handed in to the police. When students inquired, it emerged that the worker was innocent and the extorted money was with Group 4. A case was filed at the Vasant Vihar police station and the JNU Equal Opportunity office. On Monday, 28th May, a final show cause notice was issued to the previously targeted students, as well as two other students who had not been suspended in February, most of whom were at home due to the summer semester break. JNUSU responded to the show cause notice this time as well, and reiterated the collective responsibility taken by the JNU student community and demanded worker’s rights to be ensured on campus. Following this, on the 22nd June seven students were punished: three received rustication notices for four semesters, four students for two semesters and two students have been declared out of bounds. The JNUSU President, General Secretary and Joint Secretary were fined Rs. 2000 each for not ‘restraining’ protesting students.

Such punishments were absolutely unacceptable to the student community who recognized them as one more step in the administration’s insidious attempts to depoliticize the campus and deviate attention from the violations of labour laws and corruption that the students had unveiled. JNUSU immediately stepped up its protest with a relay hunger strike that began on 23rd June. It took a position of absolutely no punishments for a collective protest, in which it was also supported by the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA). JNUTA unanimously passed a resolution in the EC meeting on 25th of June condemning the actions of the administration and demanded immediate withdrawal of all rustications. The students have also been supported by several progressive civil society groups and prominent individuals from outside the campus both in the fight for minimum wages and against rustications. The Peoples’ Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) brought out a report entitled “Fettered Lives” on the condition of contract labour in JNU where they substantively reinforced the earlier findings of JNUSU. An open letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor was signed by Prof. Uma Chakravarti, Sumit Sarkar, Nivedita Menon and others demanding an end to the punishments and constitution of enquiries into the labour law violations on campus.

After students were evicted from their hostels on 29th June, JNUSU began an indefinite hunger strike. The President and Vice-President of JNUSU along-with 5 other students have completed 5 days on the indefinite hunger strike today since the administration has refused to negotiate on the set of demands made by JNUSU.

Clearly, JNU Administration is the Principal Employer. Clearly, the evidence of corruption that has surfaced, is just the tip of the iceberg. Why else does the principal employer aim helplessness before the contractors and then work in tandem with them to destroy the workers dwellings? Why does the Vice-Chancellor rusticate students instead of punishing corrupt officials? Why are protesting students declared out of bounds while the Chief Security Officer is shielded despite thrashing an innocent worker? The JNU administration has tried to absolve itself of its legal responsibility and turned a blind eye to bonded labour on JNU campus. How can a campus that seeks international repute violate the most basic labour laws of the land? Such is the situation as it prevails today on campus. The point, however, is to change it.

We appeal to all sections of civil society to urgently initiate dialogue to resolve the burning issue of violation of workers’ rights, and to lift the suspension of workers’ and students’ activists and restore democratic functioning of the University.

sign and support!

we are circulating an online petition demanding immediate enforcement of minimum wages and other legal rights of workers on campus, to be submitted to the Vice-chancellor of JNU. Please visit the link below and sign the petition to support the struggle.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/jnu2007/petition.html

Against bondage: the struggle in JNU continues

How can a family survive in Delhi on 65 rupees a day? On 14th November 2006, fifteen construction workers approached JNUSU with the complaint that instead of the 70 rupees they had been promised, they were being forced to accept 65 rupees a day. The legal minimum wage for Delhi is Rs. 127.40 per day! The very next day, the contractors threw these fifteen workers out of work, also refusing to pay them any money for work done in November.

Faced with non-payment of minimum wages on campus, JNUSU decided to step in. So as to determine the extent of the violations, we undertook a detailed survey at construction sites on campus. But as word reached the contractors, they threatened the workers into silence and obstructed the survey teams. Everywhere we saw an absence of basic facilities like drinking water, no muster rolls were found nor were any crèche facilities available to the workers children.

The issue at hand is part of a larger malaise: of the condition of the unorganized sector in our country today. Though they constitute over 90% of the total working populace, they possess no job security, no pension, no benefits or medical facilities. Back in Chattisgarh, there is little work in their villages and most own barely half a bigha of land. And, there are debts that mount and expenses to be paid --- the marriage of children, medical treatment, the repairs of houses submerged in monsoon floods. In the city, they move from place to place, uprooted at the contractors' will, dependent on their daily wages for survival.

On 22 November, JNUSU representatives met with JNU administration, emerging with a list of promises. We were promised that the workers would be reinstated and arrears would be paid to them. All contractors would be made to pay minimum wages. Muster rolls would be ensured at worksites and supervision of payments would take place. In addition, medical and toilet facilities would be provided to the workers and creche facilities extended to their children. We think that a victory of sorts has been achieved, and students and workers celebrate together.

But within a day, administration goes back on its word. Since they dared to take a stand, not only are these fifteen workers refused work, but they were also threatened in other ways. They are told the other 100 workers at the site would be set against them, incited to beat them up, and level false allegations against them. So as to prevent a situation of unrest, on 25 November we meet the rest of the workers at the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) site after they have finished work for the day. Initially a few people come, but slowly, a crowd gathers. Here too, they speak of depressed wages and the coercion of the contractors. Their children have no warm clothes and at night, mist drips through the roofs of their jhuggis.

On the 27th, as work is in progress at the SPS site, a woman is injured but sent away without adequate medical attention. This angers the workers who say they will not work until their legal entitlements are provided to them. The contractor, Jialal Malhotra, uses this opportunity to close work at the site. This is a clear case of coercion, since all these workers are dependent on their daily wages. Most have worked for only a week, and have as yet received no payment. Faced with looming food insecurity and the approaching winter, JNUSU decides to set up a community kitchen. We receive overwhelming support from several quarters: mess workers [who kickstart the kitchen], Mamu, Shombhu and Teflas Canteens [for lending us vessels], JNU Security [for daily transport of food supplies], JNUKA and JNUTA. Each evening, students and workers cook together in the open space behind SSS I [and later near the SCS building.] Yet the process is not easy, and the anger is often directed towards us. Still, the stalemate continues, still the contractor remains adamant and the administration pleads helplessness.

On 2 December, Malhotra finally agrees to make wage payments for the SPS site. But the wait has proved too long for many families. Two days earlier, the SPS basti emptied out --- a week without food or the promise of wages, entrapped in a debt cycle that began in the village, they are taken by their jobber to work elsewhere. Though he sends payments, Malhotra is not accountable to those who left. In the morning, officials from CPWD arrive, and sit clustered around a table, while outside the workers wait for their names to be called. The muster roll is clearly fabricated: many names are absent, lesser days of work were recorded, and skilled workers were paid at unsilled rates. As a result, JNU Engineering department is made to seize this document in the presence of representatives from JNUSU and JNUTA. Till date, the remaining payments for this site have not been made.

Following a unanimous all-party call, a protest-demonstration is called and a delegation meets the rector to pressurize for immediate payments. Within the weeks the other contractors, Chaudhary and Nafeez, also get ready to make payments. This time, we're ready with our own records, based on the jobber's register and labour recall, and force them to correct discrepancies on the muster rolls. The payments for November are made in full, but arrears are also paid for the earlier months when payments were made according to 65 rupees. This process of payments is a major step since minimum wages were finally enforced on campus. But the workers have been waiting for nearly a month, and the money will run out soon if they do not find work.

Finally, on 13 December, the fifteen workers find work at the SSS canteen. This should have been a cause for some relief, but that very afternoon, Dharamvir Singh of the JNU Engineering Department approached the contractor pressurizing him against employing such 'troublemakers.' The next day, under instructions from the Engineering Department, the contractor Chaudhary arrived and set his men to breaking the workers jhuggis. Everyone was at work and it was only when their children went crying to them that they realized that their houses were being destroyed. By the time JNUSU arrives, most of the damage has been done. The plastic covering was torn and broken bricks lay over tea cups and vessels, blankets and trunks. Of some houses, only the platform remains. This blatant act of violence is an attempt to dismiss a troublesome affair. We surround the contractor who panics at the sight of so many people. He tries to call administration, but no one from administration will come.

We proceed towards ad-block where we encounter Dharamvir Singh who refuses to acknowledge the contractor or admit to ordering the demolition of the jhuggis. Surprised by such amnesia, Chaudhary tells us that he paid 12 lakhs for the contract to Dharamvir Singh! We wait at the rectors office till the administration tells us: 'The workers should vacate the building.' They ask us to proceed downstairs, saying they will come down to talk. Once we’re outside, they close the gates. We wait for five minutes, half-an-hour, and then four hours. Briefly, the rector emerges to say that administration will only talk to the 'student's union.' We say that we, as students, are the union. We ask, 'Why is administration afraid of its own students?' The answer is, 'We are not afraid. But we prefer that you stay outside.'

For an entire month, JNUSU has been negotiating with the administration on a variety of issues. Yet most demands remained unfulfilled. To top it all, the administration was now refusing to even talk to us on the issue! At four 'o' clock, the decision is taken to enter ad-block through the side-gate. Thirty students storm up three flights of stairs, only to find security guards pushing to close the gate, though we manage to wedge it open. Inside, collective energies combine to create an uproar. It takes two more hours and several interactions with JNUTA and administration, before the Vice-Chancellor agrees to accept a memorandum and hold a meeting with us on the issue.

On Monday, 18 December, we walk into ad-block, up two flights of stairs, and into a room with white leather chairs. We drink tea in spotless cups and listen to the politics of paternal benevolence. They espouse the virtues of "due process" and tell us not to "create a situation where the contractor will stop work." They urge us to accept "the reality of the situation", saying that even if we ensure the payment of minimum wages on campus, these workers will not receive them elsewhere. But the reality of the situation is that the violation of minimum wages is a violation of the law. JNU is employing bonded labour.

We realize how extensive the problem of underpayment and casualisation is when approached by a group of safai karamcharis and gardeners, employed by the private firm Vayudoot. At the rate of 127.40 rupees per day, the legal monthly minimum income should be 3312 rupees. Instead, these workers are paid a flat rate of 2500 rupees, 600 rupees from their salary is cut for uniforms, and payments are made at the Noida office only after signing empty vouchers. Here again, for raising their voices, wages have been delayed, depressed and denied. 46 gardeners have been thrown out and safai karamcharis are working under the imminent threat of retrenchment. December's payments are yet to be made. Despite a sustained struggle by students and workers, the JNU administration as Principal Employer has not taken any concrete steps to enforce worker’s rights. Worse still, the contractor-JNU administration nexus has stepped up its oppression and compelled these workers to leave JNU.

Where are the accounts of where public money is being spent and why does administration flinch from giving them to us? If the cost of a bench being set up is 30,000 rupees then why does it shirk from providing the most basic facilities to its workers? Why does the principal employer claim helplessness before the contractors and then work in tandem with them to destroy the workers dwellings? And how can a campus that seeks international repute violate the most basic labour laws of the land? Such is the situation as it prevails today on campus. The point, however, is to change it.

JNU is built on progressive ideas and radical politics. It shall not be built on bonded labour. We have been taught that ideas exist in the presence of a community, and we will not accept a distancing of ideas and practise. We will not be alienated from those who work among us. Nor will we be alienated from the selves that we can be. We will not accept the compromises of administration nor its diktats seeking to curb protest. Against the 'reality of the situation', we will construct a politics of the possible.

We will not relent till answers are provided. We urge you to join the JNU workers-students struggle to implement workers rights on campus.

SMASH THE CHAINS OF BONDAGE!!!

ENFORCE WORKERS' RIGHTS!!!

JNUSU Memorandum

JNUSU MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED TO VICE-CHANCELLOR, RECTOR, REGISTRAR, DEAN, JNU ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT ON 18 DECEMBER 2006.

STATUS: STILL AWAITING RESPONSE FROM JNU ADMINISTRATION!

Taking into account the developments on campus during the past month, JNUSU puts forward the following Charter of Demands:
[1] We reiterate our demand that the remaining wage payments be made for the School of Physical Sciences site by Jiyalal Malhotra and Company. We would also like to remind the administration that in a meeting with Professor Kale on 5th December, the assurance was given that these payments would be made. On 1st December, a part of the wage payments for work done at this site were made according to the muster roll provided Jiyalal and company. Consequently there have been several discrepancies in the payment: the names of several laborers were missing from the muster roll although they had worked for several weeks at the site. Furthermore, all laborers were given minimum wages for unskilled work, whereas there were also skilled workers [masons] whose labor was employed. Confronted with such discrepancies, the JNU engineering department in the presence of JNU faculty [Prof. Rohan d’Souza and Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy] and students seized and sealed the muster rolls. Having ascertained the correct wage claims by type of work, we demand the immediate opening of the seized muster roll and vouchers and handing over of their copies to JNUSU. We would like to remind JNU administration of its responsibility in terms of agreements already reached and call upon it to ensure that full wage payments are made for this site.

[2] On 14th December 2006, under instructions from the JNU engineering department , the contractor for the substation, Chaudhary came in the morning and set about breaking the hutments of the laborers. At that time all the laborers were away at work and only their small children were at home. The action of the contractor was both violent and arbitrary and could have led to serious injury. We strongly condemn the fact that such an illegal and inhumane action could be taken, that too without even informing the laborers beforehand. While JNUSU has been engaged in a discussion with the administration on this very issue, it is amazing that such heavy handed tactics were used to intimidate the workers. We sternly warn the administration to desist from such tactics. Also, the contractor must be made to pay Rs. 1000 per hut destroyed by way of compensation to the laborers.

[3] Dharamvir Singh of the Engineering Department has been consistently trying to intimidate both students and workers engaged in the struggle for minimum wages. It was under his instruction that the order was given to break the laborer’s huts. He has also persistently interfered in the process of wage payments by seeking to reduce and limit the wages that the contractors were undertaking to pay. His interference in the matter is all the more remarkable given that he made no attempt at any point to stop the gross violations of labor laws that were taking place on campus. Further, when four families of laborers were provided work on campus, Dharamvir Singh approached the contractor questioning why these people were given employment since they were responsible for the agitation of campus. The contractors themselves say that they have been undertaking various activities in campus under his orders. Let us remind administration that this is the officer in charge of water supply, under whose supervision twenty JNU tankers have been rusting and falling into disuse. Given his record of interference and non-performance of duties, we demand the suspension of Dharamvir Singh on these grounds and also call for the constitution of an enquiry committee, independent of the engineering department and comprising both JNUTA and JNUSU representatives to look into the malpractices of the engineering department.

[4] When the issue of labor rights was first raised on campus, on 22nd November the student representatives of JNUSU met with the administration and extracted a number of commitments on the issue. Till date most of these commitments are yet to be honored, although nearly a month has passed. We once again demand a time bound assurance on the following commitments:
· Details of all work taking place inside JNU, including estimates and names of contractors, be provided.
· The records of work which is being done with public money be made transparent and available for all so that there is accountability which can be ensured and such gross violations of workers rights be checked.
· Muster rolls to be issued and displayed at worksites and a copy made available on demand.
· Ensure minimum wages be paid to workers.
· Proper medical facilities along with worksite facilities be provided to workers for their period of work inside JNU. The JNU Health center facilities should be extended to the workers.
· Issuance of job cards
· Fix days for wage payments for workers at each site.
We would also like to make it clear that the promise of providing these records and facilities cannot be used as an excuse to suspend work as has been done by the engineering department over the past month.

[5] When faced with the demand to pay minimum wages, the contractors Chaudhary and Jialal Malhotra stopped work on their sites. As a disciplinary measure, workers who asked for minimum wages were retrenched This stoppage of work is being made out by the contractors as a result of the activities of the student union, but was in fact an attempt to discipline workers, to scare them into submission. Since these laborers are dependant on their daily wages for survival, this was an attempt not only to shirk responsibility but to intimidate and control workers. Its effectiveness as a tactic can be seen by the fact that of the 60 families employed on the site, only three remain. We demand that administration not plead helplessness [since it is the principal employer] and instead pressurize CPWD to restart work on both of these sites immediately. The JNU administration should refrain from alleging worker ‘indiscipline’ as the cause for stoppage of work.

[6] The lackadaisical attitude of JNU administration perpetuated a situation where the contractors were able to cease work at the two sites, thereby pushing these workers into a situation of food insecurity and acute deprivation. JNUSU and JNUTA were compelled to step in and run a community kitchen for retrenched workers and their families for an entire month. Due to the ineffectiveness of the principal employer to provide work or wages, we demand a complete refund of the expenses incurred in the running of the community kitchen.

[7] Given the extensive nature of recent construction on campus and the degree of violations and discrepancies that have emerged, we reiterate and stress our demand that the administration provide the student’s union details of all construction works taking place inside JNU, including estimates, accounts, tender documents, contracts and names of contractors, without any unnecessary or protracted delay. In addition, we demand that the administration provide details on the employment and contracts having to do with mess workers, safai karamcharis, gardeners and Group Four Security guards.

[8] Where minimum wages are not being paid to construction laborers, it has also come to our notice that full wage payments are not being made to the safai karamcharis [unskilled workers] and gardeners [skilled workers] on campus. Presently they have all been promised a flat rate of Rs. 2500 per month, whereas they should receive Rs. 3312 and Rs. 3736 respectively. [See JNU Office Order No. 94/ 2006] Wage payments for November and December are pending for over 80 laborers on campus. Vayudoot is claiming that since JNU administration has not released the cheque for payment it is not in a position to make these payments. The Contract Labour [Regulation and Abolition] Act, 1970 states that:

“The contractor is required to pay wages and a duty is cast on him to ensure disbursement of wages in the presence of the authorized representative of the Principal Employer. In case of failure on the part of the contractor to pay wages either in part or in full, the Principal Employer is liable to pay the same.”

WE DEMAND THE JNU ADMINISTRATION RECOGNIZE ITS RESPONSIBILITIES AS PRINCIPAL EMPLOYER AND ENSURE IMMEDIATE WAGE PAYMENTS TO THESE WORKERS.

ANY ATTEMPTS MADE IN THE INTERIM PERIOD TO THREATEN OR RETRENCH WORKERS WILL BE MET WITH STIFF RESISTANCE.

Within this week we demand a positive response from JNU administration on all issues raised in this memorandum. We reiterate our stance that the administration realize the gravity of the issues at hand, take measures to remedy the violations of worker’s rights in the prevailing situation, and step forward to accept and act upon its responsibilities as principal employer.