Tata Institute of Social Sciences withdraws decision of sacking over 100 employees, including teachers

Tata Institute of Social Sciences withdraws decision of sacking over 100 employees, including teachers

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has withdrawn its decision to terminate the contracts of over 100 teaching and non-teaching staff members after the Tata Education Trust (TET) assured the release of necessary funds.

A statement issued by the institute on Sunday (June 30) stated, “TET has committed to releasing funds for the salaries of TET project/programme faculty and non-teaching staff.”

“The institute is now able to continue with the TET Project based contractual staff as it is. Meanwhile, the institute in future will work on identifying the requirements of the staff and appoint them with a regular process of advertising for the post as per the other UGC-approved appointments,” said an official from the institute’s administration.

It added that the faculty and non-teaching staff are "requested to continue their work, and salaries will be released as soon as the TET Support Grant is received by the institute.”

This came after TISS is said to have fired 55 faculty members and around 60 non-teaching staff, without notice, across four of its campuses in India, according to a media report, on Sunday (Jun 30).

According to a report by the Indian Express, the decision affected half of the teaching staff and all non-teaching personnel at the institute’s campus in Guwahati, Assam.

The newspaper citing sources said that the reason given for the sacking of the staff, some of whom had been working there for over a decade, was the non-receipt of grants from the Tata Education Trust, which was funding their salaries.

Of the teaching staff dismissed, 20 were said to be from the Mumbai campus, 15 from Hyderabad, 14 from Guwahati, and six from Tuljapur in Maharashtra.

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The remaining teaching staff, as per the report, are permanent faculty members on the University Grants Commission (UGC) payroll.

The TISS is a deemed university and is funded by the Indian government. However, in June last year, the government changed the UGC’s norms and brought the institute under the Centre’s administrative purview instead of its own governing bodies.

University responds 

In an email sent to the newspaper on Friday (Jun 28) evening, the office of the officiating registrar, Anil Sutar dismissed any connection between the two events and said that the “institute tried its best for the release of grant from Tata Education Trust for the purpose of salary.”

It added that they made multiple attempts “through official correspondence and personal meetings” but the “decision regarding further extension of grant period has not yet been received.”

Sutar’s office, according to the Indian Express also said that “in the event of non-receipt of approval/grant from Tata Education Trust,” their services would come to an end with effect from June 30.

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Acting Vice Chancellor Manoj Tiwari told the press that they had formed a committee to discuss the matter of bringing the institute under the Centre’s administrative purview with the Tata Education Trust.

He added, “If the grants are received, this can be reverted. But in case of no change in situation, there is no alternative. The institute will have to find alternative ways to run the courses.”

(With inputs from agencies)