The employees’ union of the University of Mumbai has threatened to disrupt the convocation ceremony of the university to be held on January 14 as it has failed to fulfill its promises. The employees have said they have no option but to protest as around 60 existing employees have not been promoted since the past three years, 88 retired employees are yet to get their provident fund and 33 their pension since the past two years. University officials have said that they would be meeting the union representatives on January 12 and try and convince them against resorting to protests during the convocation.
Speaking about the callous attitude of the university towards the employees’ issue, Rupesh Malusare, secretary of the Mumbai Vidyapeeth Karmachari Sangh (MVKS) said that the authorities were not willing to give the employees their dues and hence they had to resort to protesting. “In October, the university had constituted a committee for discussing the promotion of the employees. Though the committee consisting of registrars from various universities had given a go ahead, the university failed to implement it till now. The employees are being denied their rights and hence we will need to resort to disrupt the ceremony,” said Mr Malusare.
Apart from promotions, Mr Malusare said that around 111 retired employees were finding it difficult to make ends meet as the university was delaying processing of their provident fund and pension. “The union gets desperate calls from most of these employees on a regular basis begging us to push the university to release the funds. We have been requesting the university regularly but to no avail,” said Mr Malusare.
Reacting to this, Dr M.A. Khan, registrar, MU said, “We will meet the union representatives and try to accommodate their demands as far as possible. The delays in fulfilling their demands has been due to technical reasons and we will ensure that they are taken care of. We are confident that an amicable solution will be reached and the convocation will go off smoothly.”
