The Delhi University and Colleges Library Employees Association went on a strike on 3rd and 2nd of August 2018 in Arts Faculty for the implementation of their recently revised recruitment rules. DU Beat reports on the story.
Library staff from various colleges of the University of Delhi (DU) went on a strike in front of the Faculty of Arts on 3rd and 2nd August 2018. The library staff was demanding the implementation of the Recruitment Rules Review Committee Rules and the ACP/MACP Pay Scale Committee Report that had been delayed for one year. The strike has been continued indefinitely till Monday by the Working Committee of the Association.
According to a letter submitted by the Delhi University and Colleges Library Employees Association (DUCLEA) to the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University on 26th December 2017, the Recruitment Rules Review Committee was constituted in March 2017 to review the rules of appointment and promotion of Non-Teaching Staff. Even though the University administration had promised that the Review Committee would submit its report within three months of the date of its constitution, it wasn’t done so, says the letter. The letter also mentions that vacant posts had been continually being filled in colleges that have restricted the promotion of long-term library employees. The staff was also protesting against the recovery of pay scale given to library employees which allegedly denied proper remuneration to the long-term library employees. A series of strikes have also been held over the past year but didn’t elicit a satisfactory response from the University administration.
Along with these two main demands, the DUCLEA also necessitated the removal of library attendance system from college libraries, promotion of library staff on the basis of seniority, filling up vacant posts in libraries according to the RR Review Committee Rules, among other concerns.
The strike lasted on both the days. On the 2nd August, the staff raised slogans outside gate number 4 of the Arts Faculty and then took out a march from there throughout the University campus. On 3rd August, after there was no response from the University administration, there was a meeting of the Working Committee of DUCLEA which ascertained that the strike would be continued on Monday.
Sanjay Bhareri, the President of DUCLEA, speaking to DU Beat said, “We have been writing letters to the administration for one and a half years demanding that our general demands be fulfilled. For instance, our salary which was fixed according to a grade pay 18 years ago is now being recovered when our salary has been increased. The RR Review Committee rules have still not been implemented.” “We will stop the movement if they simply implement the rules that they themselves have created. Today we have to, under compulsion, strike. The VC always gives statements that he is with the employees and yet, there has been no implementation of a report which has been stuck for 18 months,” Mr. Bhareri added.
Feature Image Credits: Namrata Randhawa for DU Beat
Sara Sohail
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