Ratan Tata comes to rescue of 115 TISS employees, termination withdrawn as Tata Education Trust releases funds

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has withdrawn its notice to terminate 115 teaching and non-teaching staff members after the Tata Education Trust (TET), whose chairman is Ratan Tata, assured it of necessary resources to address the issue.

TISS said it has withdrawn the notices given to 55 teaching and 60 non-teaching staff of non-renewal of contracts and asked them to continue their work.

“Ongoing discussions with the Tata Education Trust have provided assurance that resources will be made available to TISS to resolve this issue. TET has committed to releasing funds for the salaries of TET project/programme faculty and non- teaching staff,” TISS said in a statement.

"The letter numbered Admn/5(1) TET-Faculty & Staff/2024, dated 28th June 2024, addressed to all concerned TET Programme faculty and non-teaching staff, is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect," the circular stated.

Staff are requested to continue their work, and their salaries will be disbursed once the TET Support Grant is received by the institute, it added.

On June 28, TISS had issued termination letters to around 100 staff at its campuses in Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad, and Guwahati, saying that the contracts would not be renewed and their services would end on June 30, 2024.

Professor Manoj Kumar Tiwari, in-charge VC of TISS had said: “These staff were appointed under various projects under the funding of Tata Trust. The fundings for these projects have stopped in the last few months. Considering this, we allowed these teachers to work under clock hour basis in the institute. But now we are unable to garner financial aid, so we decided to stop their services. We will reappoint them once funding from the Trust resumes.”

The move was strongly criticised by the TISS community.

In a reaction to mass termination by TISS, the Progressive Students Forum (PSF), a students’ group from the institute, had said: “TISS, a prestigious institute with a history spanning nearly 90 years, has earned its status as a leading social science institution through the contributions of its faculty and staff. Last year, the union government transformed TISS into a fully public-funded institute. However, this transition has led to delays in student aid and increased financial pressures on students from economically and socially marginalized backgrounds. The latest decision to terminate staff positions further highlights the BJP government’s perceived anti-education and anti-TISS stance.”

The prestigious institute was established in 1936 as a Deemed University. In 2023, the Centre had converted TISS into a fully publicly funded institute.

It is fully funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and governed by the TISS Society under UGC guidelines.