Over 350 temporary non-teaching staff at Bharathiar University left in the lurch without pay since start of 2025

Bharathiar University. File
| Photo Credit: Siva SaravananS

Around 350 of the more than 600 non-teaching staff at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, who have been working on a temporary basis for several years, have complained that they have not received their monthly salaries since the beginning of 2025.

The temporary staff were appointed under two categories: daily wage and consolidated pay.

Those appointed under the daily wage system have remained in the job with a five-day break in service after 85 working days. For those under consolidated pay, the five-day break is enforced every six months. Their monthly salary ranges from ₹18,000 to ₹23,000.

In the absence of a regular Vice-Chancellor, the re-appointment of non-teaching staff must be carried out by the Higher Education Secretary, in his capacity as the Convenor of the Vice-Chancellor Committee. The university is learnt to have told the affected non-teaching staff that their salaries will be credited once the files are approved by the Higher Education Secretary.

The non-teaching staff comprising sweepers, drivers, office assistants, electricians, and gardeners staged a protest on Labour Day on May 1 to draw the Higher Education Department’s attention to their plight.

The delay in approval of the files is because the Higher Education Secretary has been pushed into an unenviable position of administering most of the State universities that are functioning without Vice-Chancellors, M. Ramesh Kumar, secretary of the Bharathiar Palkalaikazhagam Panialargal Nala Sangam said.

“The non-teaching staff who are not at fault have been subjected to a struggle for daily survival due to the withholding of salaries. Such a delay has not happened so far,” Mr. Ramesh lamented.

It is a double whammy, as the non-teaching staff under the systems of daily wage and consolidated pay have not been granted the benefits of Employees State Insurance and Provident Fund. Also, since 2022-23, the payment for the staff under Minimum Wage Act specified by the District Collector has not been enforced.

“Our several representations to the Labour Welfare Department has remained unanswered,” Mr. Ramesh said.

According to university sources, the Higher Education Department was constrained to scrutinise the eligibility of the non-teaching staff over the last couple of decades, in the backdrop of suggestions that pruning of the excess staff strength was required.

Nevertheless, the question of denying salary did not arise. The files have been approved for disbursal of the pending salaries. The fund transaction has been cleared, the university source said.