Contract workers protest at University of Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Hundreds of contract and outsourced workers at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), also known as Hyderabad Central University (HCU), launched an indefinite strike on Tuesday, June 30, protesting in front of the administrative block against new labour laws and demanding equal pay for equal work.
The agitating workers, numbering around 1,096 according to the TS Contract Labour Union, an affiliate of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), are engaged across categories such as horticulture, sanitation, mess, administration, security and electrical work.
They were originally recruited through written examinations between 2008 and 2013 and classified as highly-skilled, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
The protesters alleged that the newly implemented labour codes have weakened their job security and workplace protections. They claimed the appointment of a new contractor has compounded the problem, with the contracting agency invoking provisions of the new codes to strip workers of existing rights and benefits.
“All we are asking for is to consider us for any vacant posts in the university before recruiting outsiders,” one protester told Siasat.com, who cleared a written exam after intermediate in 2008 and is now in his final year of Chartered Accountancy. Several others among the protesters have completed postgraduate degrees while continuing to work on contract.
Workers said that despite years of service, they continue to face arbitrary wage deductions. A highly-skilled worker’s salary on paper is Rs 35,000, but the contracting agency pays only around Rs 25,000. Similarly, a skilled worker’s gross salary of Rs 33,466 is reduced to a net of Rs 24,208, with Goods and Services Tax (GST), meant to be borne by the contracting agency, being deducted from workers’ pay instead, amounting to Rs 5,105 a month for skilled workers and around Rs 8,200 for semi-skilled and unskilled workers.
The union alleged that 15 workers who cleared written exams for Junior Office Assistant and Office Assistant posts were denied selection citing a lack of typing skills, while two years ago, 150 candidates were recruited externally for regular positions without absorbing a single contract worker.
Workers also said the university unofficially treats 50 years as a cut-off age for contract renewal, despite no such provision in labour law, and that benefits such as bonus, gratuity, maternity leave and health insurance remain out of reach for them.
“When we approach the registrar, he tells us that we contract workers are like a plastic disposable tea cup, that we can only serve their purpose of use and throw,” a worker told Siasat.com.
The union cited a February order by the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, where the institution directly engages as the contracting agency without an intermediary firm, as a model the UoH administration could adopt.
The protest, supported by the HCU Students’ Union represented by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), saw workers raising slogans against the administration and submitting a representation to University of Hyderabad Teachers’ Association (UHTA) president Professor Bhangya Bhukya, urging him to take up their cause with the administration.
Workers said a section of the contract workforce, divided along ideological lines, did not participate in Tuesday’s protest.
The workers said they apprehend the administration may use the new labour codes to eventually remove around 600 contract workers by hiring replacements from outside, vowing to continue their indefinite stir until the university engages in meaningful dialogue and addresses their demands.
The Centre has consolidated 29 erstwhile central labour laws into four Labour Codes — the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 — which have now come into effect across organised, unorganised and gig sectors.
This post was last modified on June 30, 2026 8:55 pm