Sanitation and mess workers and sweepers at Jawaharlal Nehru University have witnessed months of delay in salary payment over the past two years, apparently because of a funds crunch at the institution, a staff union has alleged.

The campus unit of the All India General Kamgar Union held a news conference on Monday with the JNU students’ union and teacher association to flag the hardships faced by the varsity’s contractual workers, engaged by labour contractors.

Govind Kumar, supervisor for sanitation work, said the contractual workers were mostly paid once in three months over the past two years, and their bonus too was delayed.

“When we ask for regular payment, JNU advises us to take it up with the contractor and the private company says JNU has not paid it,” Kumar said.

Recently, the sanitation workers were threatened with retrenchment by their contractor for questioning the delayed payments, the union alleged.

The contractual workers had struck work after being denied their request for payment of September’s salary ahead of the Karwa Chauth festival in mid-October. They were paid their dues on October 29.

In November, JNU engaged a new labour contractor, Sudarshan Facilities Private Limited, for its sanitation workers while the sweepers and mess workers remained with Max Maintenance Private Ltd.

Sudarshan allegedly tried to get the workers to sign an agreement that forbade them from going on strike or becoming members of any union.

After Kumar protested saying this violated labour laws, the company was forced to withdraw the condition. However, Kumar alleged, he was not being allowed to work since then, and had not been paid November’s salary.

“I’m going to site (campus) but they are preventing me from working. I’m being victimised because I raised a legal issue. They also abused me and my caste,” Kumar said.

While Sudarshan paid the salary for November on time (except to Kumar), those under Max have not been paid since October 29, the union said.

It, however, alleged that Sudarshan had cut four days’ salary, paying the sanitation workers for 26 days although, the union said, they worked 30 days a month. Besides, the company wants to retrench half the sanitation workers, the union said.

Calls by this newspaper to numbers associated with Sudarshan and Max did not evoke any response.

An email sent to vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar on Monday afternoon seeking the reasons for irregular salary payment and the alleged victimisation of Govind Kumar remained unanswered till late night.

Some 1,200 contractual workers — sweepers, sanitation workers and mess staff — are engaged in JNU. They are paid around Rs 13,000 a month.

Sucheta De from the Left-leaning All India Central Council of Trade Unions said the JNU administration had failed to implement the labour commissioner’s 2018 order mandating equal pay for equal work, which would have earned contractual workers the salaries of regular workers.

JNU teacher association secretary Moushumi Basu said JNU had cut funds under various heads, suggesting it faced a financial crunch.

“The university has drastically cut the funds given to the centres to conduct seminars and conferences. Also, faculty members are not being given allowances to attend international conferences,” she said.

“It appears that the university is facing a deep financial crisis. The university needs to clarify its receipts and expenditures.”

Amit Thorat, a faculty member, said the teacher association had told the registrar that caste abuse and victimisation of sanitation workers would not be tolerated and demanded that Govind Kumar be allowed to work.