Despite the Government asking institutions to not remove their workers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a renowned private university located in Dehradun has asked many of its faculty members to resign. The management of this university is learnt to have threatened to terminate these staff members if they fail to tender their resignations with immediate effect. The university management however claims that the number of teachers in the university had become more than what is required.
The university has asked about 30 senior and junior faculty members of mechanical, electrical, electronics, mathematics and other departments to put in their papers. The aggrieved faculty members say that they are being fired at this critical time precipitated by Covid-19. They point out that the central government has clearly said that the employees should not be removed from their jobs.
“People were informed through an e-mail on June 3 to connect on June 4 at specific time slots of 15 minutes each via a Zoom link. The agenda was not disclosed. On joining the meeting, the head of department concerned and HR representative curtly told us that we should resign within 24 hours failing which the university would issue termination orders,’’ said one such faculty member. The university has also blocked the official mail IDs and directed these employees to surrender the university's assets.
When contacted, a senior official of the university said that the teacher student ratio prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) has got skewed in favour of teachers. “The list of surplus teachers was ready for quite some time. Last year we witnessed a drop in student admissions and this year due to the pandemic scenario the situation is expected to be worse. After a process of screening based on performance this list of teachers was prepared. We had two options, either go for a salary cut of all the staff or go for a tough decision of removing non performers. The university has decided to give them salary till September 30 so that they can get enough time to scout for a new job,’’ he said.