In 5 years, PU to lay off 36% non-teaching staff

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 20

In a bid to reduce its expenditures, the fund crunched Panjab University is looking to lay off 36 per cent of its non-teaching staff in a phased manner. The university has stated this to the UGC in a recent letter. However, the UGC has said the move would not reduce the total expenditure of the university in proportion to the reduction of staff.

The university in its last letter to the UGC written on March 13 stated its non-teaching staff strength at 4,130, which is to be reduced to 3,111. However, in its January 13 letter, the PU had mentioned the same strength at 2,609, which was to be brought down to 1,019. Considering the latest numbers, the UGC has said due to increments and other benefits, along with pensions of teaching staff, no substantial overall reduction was expected to come off.

The reduction is being done to get the ratio of teaching to non-teaching staff at 1:1.1. After the reduction, the ratio would be 1:2.25. The teaching staff strength is 1,378, as mentioned by the PU. While 474 would reach the age of superannuation of 60 in the next five years, 545 non-teaching staff members working on contractual basis will also be laid off.

President of the non-teaching staff union Deepak Kaushik said, “The 1:1.1 ratio is for central universities and cannot be applied to the PU. The MHRD has time and again said the PU was not a central university, then how can this ratio be implemented here?” He said the administrative block used a large manpower which had to handle the work of not only the university, but also of the 192 affiliated colleges.

The university will not be filling up any vacant post or create a new post without the UGC approval. This was also clarified in the board of finance meeting held in August last year. 

Employee cost

The average annual per employee cost of 545 non-teaching staff is around Rs 2 lakh. Therefore, the total cost reduction would be about Rs 10.90 crores over a period of five years. The net saving, thus, would be between just 10-15 per cent of the salary of the non-teaching staff. The projected salary expenditure for non-teaching staff in the next five years is six per cent per annum only. However, it stands at nearly 12 per cent in case of teaching staff.