The All NEHU Workers Union (ANWU), representing striking casual workers at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), has listed conditions that have to be met before it agrees to call off its agitation.
Casual workers have been protesting at the campus here over regularisation, as many of them have been employed on a casual basis for years, even decades but are still not paid the same salaries nor receive the same benefits as regularised staff who do the same jobs.
Although there are still plenty of disagreements between the two sides, ANWU expressed gratitude to Vice-Chancellor PS Shukla for holding a meeting with the workers on August 17. However, it called into question many of the statements made by the NEHU administration to the press following that meeting.
ANWU said that there are only 360 casual employees on both the Shillong and Tura campuses, not 1,912 as per the official figures. NEHU also claimed that they receive higher pay than they actually get, the union added.
In its general body meeting on August 18, ANWU’s members decided to insist on a written assurance from NEHU that the workers will be paid for July and August, even for the days on which they were on strike; and an assurance that they will not be overburdened with work once they end their strike. They also resolved to struggle for the regularisation of their jobs and have proposed that a joint committee be formed to study central government rules (NEHU is a central university) on regularisation.
