Further update to Alumni/Alumnae

From: Citizens' Forum

Date: 30 July 2014 08:56

Subject: Telephone Exchange Workers at IITK campus update: Please write letters to the Director, IITK and Orange India, contractor

Dear fellow alumni/alumnae,

We would like to share with you further developments on the issue of Telephone Exchange workers in the campus and urge you to once again express your concerns with IIT Kanpur administration and other stakeholders.

As you may remember when the last time we wrote to you, our alma-mater had signed a new contract with M/s Equant Technology Services India Pvt Ltd (ETSIPL), an arm company of multinational enterprise, Orange Business Services (OBS) of France Telecom, for the maintenance of the entire telephone infrastructure of IIT Kanpur. Coming into effect in Dec 2013 the new contract had enough basis to accommodate the previous salaries of the workers, precisely Rs 13,294/- in Nov 2013, but the new contractor almost halved their salaries to Rs7,164/-. This was shocking to all of us including workers, faculty, staff, students and other community members. This outrageous reduction was implemented when all of us in India were feeling the pressure of high price rise of essential commodities. The whole IITK community expressed their concerns, and many of you also wrote letters demanding to restore the Nov 2013 wages, to the Director, Dr. Manna, and other administrators.

This collective effort to ensure justice to the workers swung the Institute into action, however, the net result was far from anything satisfactory. The workers received Rs 8626/- for the month of May 2014, a sum still significantly lower than Rs 13,294/-, the take home salary of workers in Nov 2013. Besides, the contractor paid them special allowance of Rs 10,719/- in order to only partially compensate for the lost wages from Dec 2013 to Apr 2014. In the month of June, the workers were paid Rs 8,850/-, a minor revision to the May salary arising due to the ad-hoc measures involved in the deduction of ESI/EPF. But even this monthly income without accounting for inflation remains substantially Rs 4,444/- short of the Nov 2013 income level. Using the pay-slips of workers, a table has been provided in the appendix to help understand the changes in wages.

It is very clear from the pay-slips that not only the present take home salaries of employees are close to only 65%of their Nov 2013 salaries, there also exist various inconsistencies in ESI/EPF deductions, moreover, the new contractor has entirely done away with statutory bonus, thus pointing towards gross violations of several labor laws. Therefore, we conclude that the contractor is denying these workers fair wages in spite of having been formally asked by the Institute to clarify the basis of payments.

So once again we feel that the alumn(i)/(ae) should raise this issue strongly and reach out to other alumn(i)/(ae), campus community, IITK administration and parent company of the new contractor to help rectify the dismal situation these workers have been put into. We have already written to IITK Director and OBS, Mumbai office, the parent company of ETSIPL, demanding the following:

- Restore the Nov 2013 wage level with provision to account for inflation, and ensure that IIT Kanpur, and ETSIPL and its subcontractor, follow all the labor laws in a consistent manner.
- Compensate the employees for the portion of the wages the workers already lost, with respect to Nov 2013 wage level, in the last 7 months.
- Ensure that as per the Office order (May 24th 2013) of IIT Kanpur, ETSIPL and its subcontractor maintains workers’ EPF accounts in Kanpur, and that workers can avail ESI facilities locally.

We urge you to express your concerns and demand the above by writing to the Director (imanna@iitk.ac.in) and Secretary of Alumni Association (venkats@iitk.ac.in). We also encourage you to write to the OBS, Mumbai office (nichelle.ajit@orange.com). Our letters to the Director and OBS can be reviewed at http://iitkcf.appspot.com/rue3iS. We will appreciate if you will also copy your letters to us at (citizensforum.at.iitk@gmail.com). We thank you in advance hoping that you will consider our request.

Sincerely Yours,

Amit Singh

On behalf of Citizens Forum

Appendix: Changes in the monthly income of telephone exchange workers

Courtesy: Hamara Manch

Suggested text of letters to the Director and Orange India, contractor

Dear Dr Manna (imanna@iitk.ac.in),

I am still dismayed by the plight of telephone exchange workers. This is frustrating that the Institute and the contractors have yet to fulfill the just demands of those workers and alumni. I support those demands and hope that you take more positive actions to help restore wages of these skilled workers with 10+ years of experience to at least at Nov 2013 level and ensure that the contractor and the sub-contractor abide by ALL labour laws.

Dear Mr Bala Mahadevan, CEO, Orange India and all members of the BOD, (nichelle.ajit@orange.com)

I support the just demands of telephone exchange workers of IIT Kanpur. Please take appropriate actions to help restore wages of these skilled workers with 10+ years of experience to at least at Nov 2013 level and ensure that the Orange and its subcontractor abide by ALL labour laws.