IIM-A board to decide on govt's pay structure

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad board will meet on September 25 to take a decision on the implementation of a new government order on pay structure that has been opposed by the faculty members, sources said.

The IIM-A faculty council during its meeting held on Saturday last had opposed the new government order on pay revision and asked IIM-A director Samir Barua to delay its implementation by a month.

"IIM-A board meeting has been convened on September 25, and the issue of implementing the new government order on pay revision shall be taken up for discussion then," a top official at IIM-A told PTI.

The council termed the new order which puts 40 per cent cap on the promotion of professor to senior grade, and restricts the number of domestic and international conferences a professor can attend annually, as 'infringement on academic freedom of the institution.'

The faculty council has also decided to take up this issue with other IIMs before deciding on future course of action.

"The notification prescribes limit to the number of professors (40 per cent) that can exist as a proportion of the professor in the institute drawing highest grade pay, is totally uncalled for," a senior member faculty council IIM-A said.

IIM-A faculty council is of the view that promotion of the professors should be based on academic merit and it should be regardless of how many professors already exists in any pay grade.

So far government has just clarified about the appointment of assistant professors in the new order to an extent. The order is silent on the demands of scholastic pay raised by the IIMs, including IIM-A and IIM-Calcutta, the council had said.

The IIMs in its report sent to Union HRD ministry had suggested that senior professors should be in super time scale of Rs 67,000 to 79,000, with grade pay of Rs 12,000," a member of the faculty council said.

The IIMs had demanded that assistant professors should be starting in pay scale of Rs 37,400, plus grade pay of Rs 8,000 and scholastic pay of Rs 15,000, while associate professors should start from pay scale of Rs 45,000, plus pay grade of 10,000 and scholastic pay of Rs 15,000.