2010-01-25 : Hamara Manch Update [Ganga Charan Ji, Telephone Exchange]
(Note: Some names removed. Related pages: Telephone Operators' case, Harassment due to lack of processes and consequent arbitrariness)
On Ganga Charan Ji (the tailor in hall V since 1965): Some of the fellow workers in the hall have decided to help him and this wed he was better clothed; he is getting meals in the hostel and workers are trying to mobilise support amongst the residents so that he can do his work from within the hostel premises.
The telephone exchange technicians have met with part success in their campaign which some of you had joined. Below a brief report is appended; if you are already aware of facts, you can see the point 8 and beyond for the recent happenings.
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Technicians of the Telephone Exchange
Almost all of this, including their salaries, is based on documentary evidence, since they get printed salary slips every month.
There are eight technicians/ operators in this contract, six of them have been working almost since the beginning of the contract in 2002; the most senior has been working in the IITK exchange since 1990 and in IITK since 1988. Four of them have done ITI course of technician, one is MCom and one of them has an engineering diploma in electrical engineering. Some of them had relevant work experience as well before they came to this job.
The Institute telephone system is of 5000 lines. Between them they practically manage the whole telephone system of IITK:
a. Maintenance of telephone lines from BSNL and within the institute, including distributor points and distributor board.
b. Providing new connections and shifting of lines
c. Maintenance of wireless system and maintenance of digital phones as well as ADSL systems, line activation and configuration.
d. Computing and maintaining consumer billings
e. Programming for facility requested by users
f. Telephone operators
As per their official designations, there is one Sr. Technician, five technicians, and two operators. In case of contingencies they have to work even in the nights. Many of them can handle all kinds of work. The work is divided into territories for individual technician. All the complaints are taken care of on the same day – on a normal day around 20 complaints, but during rains they may go up to even 50. For maintenance of lines they even have to climb up without helpers as they work alone (before contract, this work had provision for helpers).
IITK awarded the contract of operation and maintenance of the exchange to HCL Infosystems in 2002. But the employment of these people is ambiguous – though their ID cards state that they are employees of HCL, their wage slips come from another entity called ‘Chaque Jour Outsourcing Solutions’, whose officials they have never met - they actually know nothing about that company. Their employment letters were given in 2002 from Chaque Jour for six months and have never been renewed, but they continue to work.
At present the institute pays Rs 12,160/- per month per operator to HCL, but these operators are given only a fraction of this amount. For instance Sr. Technician, who is a diploma in engineering and has been working in telephone exchange since 1990 (and in the institute since 1988), was paid Rs. 7239/ (gross 7800/) last month. He practically manages the whole exchange and the billing. While the contract says 5 days a week, they work six days. Even if they work on national holidays, they do not get anything extra, there is provision for 15 days earned leave but till date nothing has been paid in seven years.
All others are being paid in the range of Rs. 4000/ - 4500/ per month, the least being Rs. 4270/ gross (3771/ in hand, while even the minm wages for 26 days for unskilled worker is currently 5304/). Interesting thing is that all of them have the same basic including Sr. Technician: Rs. 3372/. Also the deductions have nothing to do either with the basic salary or with gross and vary from 499/ to 562/. Most likely they are merely arbitrary backwards calculation to arrive at a pre-decided ‘payment in hand’ amount.
Salary comes fairly late every month, for instance salary for this month came on the 12th. Once salary did not come till 21st in 2004. When an operator complained he was fired in the next month. Salary has never been increased without asking/ pleading in all these seven years.
While the Sr. Tech. was working for IITK project till 2002 he had HC facility for self. But now their ESI card is renewed every six months. Last time it was renewed for Jan.-Jun. 2009, which came in Apr. end. So, every time they need to register themselves afresh in the ESI hospital which is a lengthy process, and so they have given up on ESI. At times their relevant ESI hospital in these seven years has also been in Lucknow and Delhi!
For the last couple of months they have been seeking support from the Institute community and 32 faculty and 15 staff members have endorsed their petition. They have submitted their complaint to the HCL bosses, and then to the chair of Minm Wage Committee last month, who in turn asked for a written explanation from the HCL local authorities. This week their new pay cheques for Dec. have come with hiked salaries. Now the lowest gross salaries have been hiked to Rs. 6448/ (six of them, this is the amount equal to 248*26, Rs. 248/ being the minm wages for skilled work at present) while the maxm salary continues to be 7800/ as in the past. Thus the increment in the salaries being from zero to Rs. 2178/, the maxm increment being for the person who has worked for 3 years, while no increment for the person who has been working for 20 years! Thus in 2002 when he was transferred from IITK project to HCL, his salary was Rs. 5570/ (more than 2 times the skilled rate) but has become just 1.2 times the skilled rate now! Though he has not got any increment his basic has been hiked from 3372 to 4500/.
As is evident, the salary policies for these employees have been absolutely arbitrary for all these years, and continue to be so in spite of this hike by HCL given under pressure. Further HCL seems to be taking both the Institute and the technicians (who manage the entire system) for a ride. HCL needs to do the following immediately:
Explain in detail the policies for salaries, benefits, and other service conditions for each of these 8 operators for all these years.
It is significant that HCL has raised the wages of these technicians (albeit arbitrarily) as soon as they raised their case to the Institute authorities. This indicates that the company accepts that it was not giving the technicians their due salaries. Therefore the company must be forced to ‘correct’ its mistakes and payback each of these workers their due back-salaries calculated on the basis of their experience and qualifications.
Of course the telephone technicians are going to raise these demands. But we all need to support them the best we can; if possible by even raising these questions on their behalf to the concerned authorities.
On a different note perhaps this is a fit case to initiate a workers’ cooperative. These technicians have been efficiently managing this vital service practically by themselves for seven years now. These workers can organize this work and deliver the services directly to the Institute, without the intervention of either HCL or Chaque Jour, who seem to have been merely diverting their legitimate salaries.