Back-story: In the anonymous student’s interview, he said; “The Thaikadayari or, to put it in better words subcontracting it refers to the practice of assigning or outsourcing part of obligations under a contract to another party. This subcontracting has been going on in LUMS since 2012 that it was the documentations reveal, and it hinders the employees from getting their designated salaries, among other difficulties faced by the employees eventually.” Adding to his interview, “The subcontracting system allows this injustice.”
What happened: He added in his interview, “In 2019, we along with the staff raised our voices for especially for the underpaid employees of LUMS, including the guards and janitorial staff. The workers were the one who led the sit-in at the Khohkha and after 6-8 hours the employees were paid their promised Easter incentives. It is pertinent to mention that among other difficulties, the janitorial staff and the guards are not allowed to have food with the students or sit on benches but are sometimes forced to have their lunches in washrooms. However, currently, the matter at hand is to end sub-contracting as a corporation cannot authentically guarantee any ethical standards because it has agreed to give up control to third-party contractors, whose ethics might differ.”
Also: “We have tried our bid to talk to the admin regarding the issues, but we are only stalled by them and given high hopes with zero-ground work. Such is the case of medical cards for the workers. The workers have not been given social security cards that make them eligible for social security benefits that the Labour Code mandates. At the same time, the 250-300 rupees were deducted from the workers’ salaries but the promised card was not given.”
Another issue: “The employees in LUMS as sacked or transferred on one-day notices, the employees who have no prior history of a record or were involved in malign practices are sacked by the company, to which the admin says; ‘They have only been transferred.’ Whereas, the workers which are transferred are not needed at that place. Which, in my opinion, is unfair, as they should be given one-month prior notice before termination. Moreover, I know employees who have tried to raise this issue with higher-ups, but their voices were shunned, and they were restricted from bringing their smartphones into the university.”
More: “I personally know one of the females (Ayya) at the girls’ hostel who was sacked as she was not allowed a maternity leave by the admin and she said; ‘It happens on a frequent basis that female employees are not allowed leaves, even in emergency situations and when we do take a few days off we are fired.’”
Why are the employees sacked? “According to most of the students in LUMS, the employees are underpaid and not given proper worker’s rights. At the same time, the employees are a few times falsely accused of sexual harassment or any crime and are dismissed or transferred. The administration is willing to go to any extent to terminate the employee, be it an allegation of a small theft or if the employee has dropped in anything on the floor. Previously, in September 2019, a female MBM accused a higher-up in the sub-contracting company of sexual harassment and she was then intimidated by the administration and by the sub-contracting too and eventually fired.”
What’s happening now: On February 3, the student body and a few employees are staging a sit-in at LUMS to “force” the VC and LUMS administration to take action against the sub-contracting and demolish the concept of hiring employees by outsourcing. Another LUMS student in an interview with ProperGaanda shared hope and said, “Though this kind of protests take place every year and each year hopes and false promises are made. But, it will not be long when LUMS has used all the outsourcing companies, and eventually, they’ll have to bring an end to this culture.”
