Bonus Non-payment and Labour Rights Violations; Mess Workers Join Duty Wearing Black Badges,Salary Slip Continues to be Denied! ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ Order by Labour Commissioner Continues to be Violated! Under the Vice-Chancellorship of Madam Dhulipudi Pandit, Women Workers Are Being Denied Maternity Benefit!
Contract workers at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) went on strike on Tuesday, protesting alleged violations of labour rights by the university administration and private contractors. While sanitation workers observed a strike, mess workers joined their duties wearing black badges as a mark of protest against the administration’s failure to address their demands. More than 500 contract workers across sanitation, mess, security, horticulture and maintenance have been affected by what their union describes as persistent violations of labour laws, including illegal wage deductions, non-payment of statutory bonuses, arbitrary suspensions and excessive workloads arising from staff shortages. The strike follows months of unsuccessful attempts to resolve these grievances through administrative and legal channels. On September 10, 2026, more than 500 workers submitted a detailed charter of demands to the Assistant Labour Commissioner (ALC).
Following a campus-wide protest march on September 24–25, the Labour Conciliation Officer convened a formal hearing between the workers’ union, AIGKU/AICCTU, and the JNU administration.
The ALC directed the university management to immediately halt retrenchment, issue salary slips and identity cards to all workers, constitute a functioning Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) with elected worker representatives by October 7, provide mandatory safety equipment to sanitation workers, and audit missing statutory bonuses and unlawful wage deductions. The union had deferred a planned strike in late September, relying on the administration’s assurance that a compliance circular would be issued. However, the workers allege that nearly two months later, the administration has failed to implement the key directions issued during the conciliation proceedings. Left with no other option, workers began their agitation on Monday morning at Sabarmati T-Point on the JNU campus.
The workers are demanding an immediate end to unlawful monthly wage deductions and non-payment of bonuses, reinstatement of illegally retrenched workers, and an end to arbitrary suspensions without proper enquiry. They have also demanded additional manpower to address excessive workloads, statutory entitlements to earned leave (EL) and casual leave (CL), payment for work on holidays, immediate constitution of a Grievance Redressal Cell, and implementation of the principle of equal pay for equal work. The workers have appealed to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) to extend solidarity with their struggle and issue a statement condemning the administration’s alleged failure to comply with labour laws and the Labour Commissioner’s directions.
The workers said that a university which upholds academic freedom and democratic values cannot remain indifferent to the working conditions of the people responsible for keeping its campus functional. They called upon teachers, students and other sections of the university community to stand in solidarity with the workers’ struggle for their basic labour rights.
