University And College Teachers are Not Happy with Salary Revisions Under the Seventh Pay Commission

The leading university and college teachers' associations have announced a series of protests against the Centre, expressing discontent with the seventh pay commissions’ salary revisions.

The associations, All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations (AIFUCTO) and the Federation of College and University Teachers' Associations (FEDCUTA), have noticed that the “retrograde” recommendations from Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) will discourage research by withdrawing the incentives to teachers with PhD degrees.

The MHRD notification dated November 2, 2017, about the VII Pay revision for teachers in colleges and Universities across the country, surfaced following the cabinet decision on the same on October 11, 2017. The recommendations were made by an expert committee set up by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The regressive recommendations in the MHRD notification include “misleading information about the pay hike, no resolution of anomalies of the VI pay revision, lowest hike for incumbent teachers, withdrawal of PhD/M.Phil increments, downgrading of college teachers at every level, no professorship in Colleges, parity of librarians and other academic staff with teachers, downgrading of principals, increased disparity in pay, no allowances, no reference to pension benefits, certain service conditions and limited financial assistance to universities”, the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) said in a press statement.

"The most horrific recommendation on the pay revision of the teachers is the withdrawal of the Ph.D./MPhil increments. This is a retrogressive step as it amounts to discouraging research and taking away incentives for the same," DUTA president Rajib Ray said at a press conference held in Delhi on Monday.

Protesting against these regressive recommendations and commercialization of education, DUTA had given a protest call and Wednesday was observed as a “black day”. Wearing black badges, the teachers have raised their demands.

The main demands of the protesting faculties are “withdraw retrograde education policies, resolve the anomalies of 6th CPC, make UGC Pay Review Committee report public, scrap Academic Performance Indicators and ensure time-bound promotions, along with others.

Strongly voicing against the commercialization of education, the DUTA also demanded the involvement of teachers in policymaking.

On November 21, DUTA will organise a march from Mandi House. Following the march, all the affiliates of AIFUCTO and FEDCUTA will hold dharnas across the country on November 30 as the part of the “save higher education” campaign. Along with the march and dharnas, teachers will organise signature campaigns and send the documents to the MHRD.

December 12 will witness a dharna and a rally at every state headquarters. Protests are likely to take place during Parliament's winter session.

The on-going protests of faculties are the part of a larger struggle of workers across all sectors. Delhi had witnessed a massive protest Mahapadav, the joint protest called by different trade unions from various sectors of the working-class community, on last week. One of the main demands of the protesters was the implementation of minimum wages as per the 7th pay commission’s recommendations.

During the third week of October, the Maharashtra state road transport corporation workers also demonstrated for the minimum wages as per the 7th pay commission’s scale.