Panjab University’s non-teaching staff relying on public transport demand exemption from work

As public transport in Chandigarh remains off the road, many varsity employees relying on it are unable to report to work

The non-teaching staff of Panjab University (PU) have asked the varsity administration to exempt those employees from duties who commute via public transport. They have also requested the university to change the office timings for the employees.

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PU reopened its offices on May 13 after getting a nod from the UT administration to run offices with 33% staff on rotational basis amid the Covid-19 outbreak. However, the non-teaching staff association has written to the varsity that many of the staffers who used to come to the offices using public transport are unable to report to work.

Panjab University Staff (non-teaching) Association (PUSA) president Deepak Kaushik said, “We welcome PU’s step to reopen the offices. However, we have received calls from many employees who are unable to come to the offices as they rely on public transport for their movement.”

In a letter addressed to PU vice-chancellor Raj Kumar, the employees have requested the authorities to exempt those employees from the duties till public transport becomes functional.

Besides this, the employees have also sought changes in the office timings from the varsity administration.

The PUSA president said the employees coming to the office were made to stand in queues for a long time in order to get their thermal checkup done. Also, they were asked not to come out of the office till their shift was over, he said. “However, the employees will need to go out of their offices to have lunch and on their return, they will have to wait again for checkup, which will lead to wastage of time. So, we request the administration to change the office timings. The new timings should be from 9am to 2pm without any lunch break in between,” said Deepak Kaushik.

PU registrar Karamjeet Singh said, “We have received the letter from the employees and are examining the matter.”