TISS extends contracts of 115 employees till 2026 after Tata Education Trust funding, explores self-sustainability for long-term employment | File Photo
Mumbai: In a major relief for 115 teaching and non-teaching contractual employees at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), the administration is all set to extend their contracts till 2026.
The move comes after the Tata Education Trust (TET) pledged funds to pay their salaries until the end of 2025-26 academic year. The administration is also hopeful of working out a “self-sustainance plan” to further increase their contracts and make them permanent, a senior TISS official informed, requesting anonymity.
The decision comes after TISS officials met the TET office-bearers and requested them to extend the contracts of the employees associated with the programmes funded by the board. “Since they have agreed to fund their salaries, we are going to extend their contracts till next year,” the official said.
Earlier on December 24, TISS administration had extended the contracts of 55 teaching and 60 non-teaching employees from across its four campuses — Mumbai, Guwahati, Tuljapur, and Hyderabad — till the end of March this year after receiving funds from TET. Their terms were set to end on December 31.
The contracts of these staffers were abruptly terminated on June 28 last year, with the termination letter indicating that their contracts would not be extended and their services would conclude on June 30. However, after uproar by the staffers and students, who raised concerns highlighting that many of the affected teachers were involved in project work and teaching across various courses, TET agreed to extend funding for the 115 staffers members until December 31 and TISS administration re-instated them.
Till 2023, TET was managing TISS since its inception in 1936. In 2023, the central government took over the reins of the Institute from Tatas after it decided to bring all institutions that received more than 50% of government funds under its own purview. The issue of these contractual employees at the deemed-to-be university, some of whom have been working at the institute since 2008, has been going on ever-since.
However, since the termination and the following reinstatement of the employees in June last year, a “self-sustainance plan” has been under work, which would help TISS generate funds to further extend their services.
As per the plan, TISS administration has requested faculty members across all academic departments at all the four campuses to design market-driven courses and the revenue generated from the tuition fees of these programs will be used to cover the salaries of contractual staff.
“We want to keep all our staff. Why would we not want them to continue their services? We would in fact like to hire more people than terminate contracts. The only problem is the lack of money at the Institute to pay their salaries. But with the self-sustenance plan, we’re hopeful that revenue will be generated and these staff will continue for a longer duration,” the senior official said, adding that the administration is also considering hiring the staffers on a permanent basis, given that they have necessary qualifications.
