TISS Reverses Termination Notices for Over 100 Staff Members

Just two days after sending termination notices to over 100 staff members due to a funding shortfall from the Tata Education Trust (TET), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) acting Vice-Chancellor Manoj Kumar Tiwari announced that the staff would be retained. The termination notices were withdrawn immediately on Sunday.

This decision followed an assurance from TET to release funds for the salaries of project and programme faculty and non-teaching staff. A public statement from TISS read, “The termination letter dated June 28, 2024, addressed to all concerned staff is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect. They are requested to continue their work, and salaries will be released as soon as the TET support grant is received by the institute.”

The termination notices had sparked controversy, affecting 55 faculty members and 60 non-teaching staff across TISS campuses in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tuljapur, and Guwahati. These staff members, who were on contractual terms, were informed on the evening of June 28 that their contracts would not be renewed, ending their service on June 30.

Typically, the contracts for staff working on TET-funded projects are renewed annually. Although appointed by TISS, their performance is evaluated according to University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. This year, the contracts ended on May 31, but staff were instructed to continue their duties, including developing new programmes, starting the admission process, and conducting student interviews for the next academic year.

One professor, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed frustration, saying, “This is deceitful. If you were planning to terminate us, why ask us to start the admission process? We had just finished admission interviews a few hours before receiving the termination email.”

Another professor highlighted the potential impact of the terminations, stating, “If the terminations had gone through, some of the brightest scholars would have lost their jobs, and the programmes across campuses would have faced a disproportionate teacher-student ratio.”

The earlier termination letter had stated, “It is painful to inform you that your services at the institute will come to an end w.e.f. 30 June 2024 (A.N.), in the event of non-receipt of approval/grant from Tata Education Trust, and the institute will work on your pending salary dues for June 2024.”

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Tiwari explained, “For the last four months, we managed to pay salaries to all the staff, but it was becoming difficult to use further reserves. However, we informed them that when funds come in, we will renew the contract.”

Despite the extension, the affected faculty remains uncertain about the future. “While the V-C has granted us an extension, many questions remain unanswered. We are yet to get clarity on the duration of our retention. The term ‘project staff’ is also misleading. By categorizing contractual teaching faculty as such, they can dismiss anyone. We believe we are not dispensable, given that we have been teaching courses here for 15 years,” said another faculty member.

Even faculty funded by TET are recruited through a due process and are part of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council as well as the National Institutional Ranking Framework.

“When someone is referred to as TET project staff, they are seen as dispensable at short notice or when funding is exhausted. But practices such as sudden termination are unfair even for TET project staff,” said another faculty member.

Many of the affected staff members have been at the institute since 2008, running various teaching and research programmes. Another professor, who has been with the institute for over a decade, said, “Most of us are sole breadwinners, and at this age and given the current economic situation, who will offer us another job? When UGC can appoint faculty by following the due process, then why this fuss?”

The sudden termination had come as a shock to the faculty.

According to the TISS Teachers Association (TISSTA), the institute has 30 sanctioned positions to be filled, but no efforts have been made to do so. The association has been demanding these appointments and the creation of a few more positions in various departments as required.

Professors whose salaries were drawn from the TET fund had been hired by the institute following the UGC-mandated full panel. “These are stellar scholars with long and strong publications, and some of them have been working for the institute for as long as 10 years. They continued to draw their salaries from the TET fund since there were no UGC vacancies, and even when some opened up, they remained vacant,” a professor added.

According to the professor, departments were verbally informed that they could hire staff members required to fill the vacant positions on an hourly basis. “Since the third semester begins on July 5, we were told to hire substitutes on an hourly basis to fill the positions vacated by the professors hired under the TET,” she added.

The faculty believes that such a step would ruin the “quality of education and the culture of TISS.”

As the terminations have come ahead of the new academic year, the Progressive Students’ Forum is concerned that it would take a toll on their studies, given the existing gap of required faculty for the available courses.

Concerns have been raised regarding the delay in appointments for sanctioned positions declared by the UGC, the sustainability of the programmes, and a general decline in leadership.

One tenured professor voiced concerns about what they perceive as a decline in leadership within the institute. “We currently have an acting V-C who is hesitant to make decisions due to his interim status,” the professor stated. “Moreover, there appears to be a government strategy of sidelining individuals and making arbitrary appointments, favouring a select few while disregarding the rest. It has been a year since we’ve had strong leadership.”

(With inputs from Alisha Dutta and Maitri Porecha from New Delhi)