2014-04-19 : Letter to Director, IITK.

Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 

Dear Dr. Manna, 

I hope this letter finds you in best of health. We have learned that with a recent change of contract for the Telephone Exchange services, the workers’ wages have been slashed from Rs. 13294/ month (in Nov 2013) to Rs. 7164 / month (in Dec 2013). We are shocked and find it unacceptable. 

All of these workers were awarded a salary of approximately Rs. 8000 /month in 2002 in the previous contract, which had gradually increased to Rs. 13,294/ by November 2013 level accounting for inflation. The inflated prices did not disappear in December 2013, and yet their salaries have been almost halved under the new contract. Based on our understanding, these workers are very experienced, have performed their job very well and because of them IITK has a well functioning communication system. By allowing the contractor to halve the salary of these workers, Institute has the appearance of accepting a blatant exploitation by this new contractor. 

It is troubling to learn that the contractor 'M/s Equant Technology Services (India) Pvt Ltd' has sub-contracted the work to S2 infotech Private Ltd. (based in Mumbai) and without mentioning this in the contract. This is in spite of the fact that some clauses of the contract forbid this kind of sub-contracting. Moreover, the Institute has allocated in the services part of the contract, a certain amount for salaries and wages of workers for doing the real work. We believe that the Institute has allocated an adequate amount to ensure that previous wage levels of these workers can be maintained over and above service charges. Why is this not being passed on to the workers? 

With the new contractor, one does not recognize the essential, and highly competent service, which has been provided by these workers so far and their unflinching commitment to continue this work. It illustrates an inhumane disregard for their living conditions on the part of this employer. Given the high rate of inflation in last many years, a drastic reduction in their salaries will create a serious hardship for the families and children of these workers. We are troubled to witness such a disregard of Human Rights and dignity of Telephone Exchange workers by the contractor. 

We appeal to the Institute to, 

• Enforce the terms of the contract and ensure that the contractor pays at least the same wage as they were earning before the change with provision to account for inflation. The Institute has certainly provided the contractor with more than enough to pay the employees well 

• Compensate the workers for the portion of the wages lost in last 4 months 

• Ensure that as per your Office order (May 24th 2013), the contractor has EPF accounts in Kanpur and that workers can avail ESI facilities locally 

We look forward to hearing from you. 

Prof. Manna, we need to ask ourselves the question “Would we want our graduating students to be treated this way? “. I am sure that the answer will be an unequivocal NO!! Consequently, let us treat these workers in the same way as we would want for our future alumni. 

With warm regards, 

Sincerely yours, 

On behalf of Citizens’ Forum 

April 19,2014 

c.c. Prof Y.N. Singh Chair, Faculty Forum, Prof. P. Munshi, Dean Alumni Affairs