Still paid as per 5th Pay Commission: MU ad hoc profs

Mumbai: At a time when the state government on Thursday approved the seventh pay commission for employees and pensioners, more than 150 ad hoc professors of the Mumbai University (MU) continue to be paid on the basis of the fifth pay commission.

The professors said that it is an injustice to them as the difference in pay scale between the two commissions is around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.

Moreover, even though they are ad hoc (temporary basis) professors, the workload is equal to that of permanent staff and only the pay scale and additional security differs.

“This is victimisation of our professors. Just because we are on a temporary basis, does not give them (the university) the liberty to exploit us in anyway,” said a professor on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, another professor, who is serving as an assistant professor at a Churchgate-based college, said, “Currently, I am being paid around Rs 45,000 while as per the state’s clause of the sixth pay commission I should be getting more than Rs 62,000. Adding to this, there is no security provision for us either from the university or college.”

Recently, the state government approved the seventh pay commission where the salaries and related allowances of state staffers including teachers and professors were cleared.

The state government had earmarked a sum of Rs 10,000 crore in the state budget for 2018-2019 to revise the pay scales of the employees.

“While we should be getting salaries now as per the seventh pay commission, we are still stuck with salaries as per the fifth pay commission. We have a family but more importantly, we have self-respect. When I contact my friends from other universities in other parts of the state, they are all getting salaries higher than what we have been getting till now,” said another professor.

A good number of ad hoc professors are in every department and sub-campus of the university.

“The only drawback apart from the personal problems we face is the lack of motivation we professors struggle with on a daily basis. There are several professors in our department who are on permanent posts who have the same level of job but the provisions and salaries they receive are way better than us,” he added.

Ad hoc professors are on a contract basis. While recruiting them, they are given a dedicated slot till such time they can work in that position. Several professors have written to both the university and the state government to look into this matter.