30.Employees’ problems in 70s

If ragging related problems were prevalent for students, problems for the employees were different and mostly related to the service conditions, promotions etc. As briefly mentioned in an earlier episode of this series, the basic problem in starting these institutions as a joint venture of the central and state governments with autonomy and governance by a Board of Governors continued to create more and more difficult situations. Policy decisions were supposed to be taken by the governing body or Board of Governors which hardly met once or twice in a year at some place convenient to the Chairman who was also the Education Minister of the state. There were members in the board who has never seen the college under their governance.

All RECs were  registered under the  Societies Act  of 1860 of the  British era by which the relation between the employee and employer(BoG) was  that of  master and servant. There were no permanent  set up to hear the grievances  of the employers leave alone solving it. The personal interests of the Principal and the Chairman were always given top priority. Staff members who were ready to blindly support the administration were given some crumps of bread whereas those who opposed even on matters of general wellbeing and principles were denied even their legitimate claims if possible.  Administration was not very keen to develop the institution by bringing in more courses which will create better opportunities for the employees for promotion to higher posts and bring in more infrastructure. In a government-funded institution which started functioning in 1961 with just three undergraduate programmes, the first post graduate programme was started only in 1971, that too one M.Tech programme in each one of the departments. For an M.Tech programme, only one post each of a professor and assistant  professor could be created. These posts were exclusively in the advanced area of the M.Tech course and often people  from outside the college were appointed to these posts. And these ‘outside’ persons were men of special interest to the administration, not necessarily the best among the applicants.

Many staff members in the non-engineering departments which constituted almost 1/3 of the total, had joined REC after 5-10 years of service elsewhere. Many of them were continuing in the appointed post for more than 15 years in this college. These members of teaching staff who were stagnating in their initially appointed cadres were interested in getting at least one promotion as prevalent in the state government and aided engineering colleges. In the state colleges, a system of nan-cadre promotion had been introduced in addition to the seniority promotion depending on the availability of vacancies. With the minimum qualification of a Masters degree, a teaching staff member with 13 years of service could be promoted to the post of Assistant  Professor and those  who completed 20 years promoted as professor. This facility of non-cadre promotions was not available to teachers in REC as all posts were filled by  national advertisement and selection. Consequently, majority  of the  teaching staff members decided to fight for the  non-cadre promotion and if necessary state  pay scales as a package. Remember, the teaching staff were given central pay scales and state dearness allowance where as non-teaching staff were given state government scales and dearness allowances.  In short, the service conditions were a multi – mix with very few other than the administration wanted it.

To improve the promotion chances of teaching staff, the staff association wanted state scales and time bound promotion as a package but the administration flatly refused stating that all India  selection will improve the quality of the teaching staff. Direct actions were initiated with a public procession in Calicut with a coffin of the ‘expired justice’ in the coffin. Administration, especially the Principal was adamant and this only created more disharmony between the employees and the Principal. 

By the time some of us like Venkataramani and me  returned after  getting our M Tech taking leave on loss of pay, central government  had introduced a  Quality Improvement Programme (QIP)   for teaching staff by which they can be  given 3 years  leave with full pay and an additional  small stipend for as dislocation allowance. This was very attractive and those who could get selection after stiff competition in I.I.T.s could join the PhD programme and return after 3 years. As the number  of opportunities were limited, competition was quite tough and some times a junior may get selected but a senior may  not. The  BoG brought a restriction that the  number of candidates who can be granted  leave on QIP  will be restricted to 1/6 th of the existing staff in each department. This again created heart burns as many who got selected could not get leave. Further, this also created an atmosphere of distrust and jealousy among the faculty members of the departments. As the Principal often depended on the opinion of a coterie of advisers to take decisions, things were moving from bad to worst. The whole atmosphere in the college was one of suspicion and horse trading for petty benefits. Fortunately, majority of the teaching staff did not allow their personal problems to affect their teaching work only because of the institutional culture and absence of political interference.

The problems of the non-teaching staff were mostly concerned with the higher   grades for them based on length of service as available in state government services.  For a selected favoured few, service in other institutions prior to joining REC was considered whereas a few others were denied the same on flimsy grounds. The minimum requirements of qualifications were also waived for a few in the good books of the principal.  This created resentment among a section of the nonteaching staff.

Changes in the state politics had also its reflections in the REC administration. The state ministry of education was in the hands of a particular party for a long time and the principal was in the good books of these ministers but when ruling party changed, the new education minister was not ready to sign on the dotted lines drawn by the principal. The difference in opinion between the Chairman, BoG and Secretary (Principal) had its reverberations in the administration. Things were moving to a crisis point at a rapid rate.