Sometimes, if you dig too deep into something you’ll find that the magic associated with its mystery vanishes.
At first glance, the campus of the Lahore University of Management Sciences is a magical place. Not only can you express opinions here which are tough to express anywhere else in the country, but the visual beauty of the campus is undeniable. With its lush green gardens, open spaces, pretty lights, and views, the LUMS Campus is known to be a beautiful and comfortable home for its five thousand plus occupiers. Five thousand, however, is a huge number on a huge campus; hence, the fact that every inch of this space is kept spick and span almost 24/7 should not go unnoticed. While the aesthetics of the campus may be appreciable, what is often forgotten is the process which goes into the maintenance of such aesthetics and comfort – the painstaking efforts of the workers at LUMS.
Despite the open discourse and progressive environment at LUMS, it is a shame to witness the ongoing plight of its workers who have been protesting for their rights and better treatment since nearly a decade but have seen few improvements. It is necessary to note that the workers are not hired directly by LUMS but are employees of subcontracting companies which the administration deals with.
Over the past 4 years, LUMS has switched between three different subcontracting companies. This has caused many accountability issues and has forced the workers to suffer from inconsistent policies. For instance, workers employed with these companies have been experiencing salary cuts of five to six thousand rupees per year – a major loss in a minimum wage salary – which are supposedly meant for their health insurance cards. To this day the employees have not received these cards or benefits.
Other contractual rights awarded to these workers include the right to overtime pay, paid leaves and protection against arbitrary dismissal; however, few – if any – of these rights are implemented in practice. Arbitrary dismissals are common and under the current subcontracting company workers are struggling to get paid leaves. There are also common cases of workers being transferred out of LUMS to other facilities without their consent (in violation of another contractual right) as a form of punishment for often minor transgressions.
To explore the deep-rooted issue of labor exploitation further, interviews were conducted with student activists at LUMS who could shed more light on the issue. According to these reports, the first protest for implementation of labor rights was held in 2012 on the LUMS Campus with a focus on increasing their wages to the new legal minimum wage standard. By the end of 2019, protests against unethical subcontracting practices reached their peak and major concessions were agreed to by the LUMS administration. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, these developments came to a crashing halt. Since the reopening of the Campus in September 2021, a new subcontracting company has been operating within LUMS, bringing with it its own set of issues.
In early February, a fresh wave of protests began with student activists and faculty members taking the lead. The administration agreed to the establishment of a Grievance Committee which would serve as a platform for workers to hold their employers accountable and report violations of their contractual rights. The committee was meant to include worker and student representation. In an unfortunate turn of events, while the committee itself has been approved, student and worker representation were denied. Instead, the CEO of the current subcontracting company hired by LUMS and a controversial LUMS administrator have been placed on the board. Due to the existing mistrust between the workers and their employers, the amended structure of the Grievance Committee has made it practically useless. Workers have also openly expressed their discomfort at vocalizing their complaints before the perpetrators themselves.
Upon asking them what the community could do to improve worker conditions on its part, student activists urged other students to inform themselves and spread awareness about the cause. One of the activists described an invisible barrier which exists and is perpetrated by society between us and our workers and helpers. The first step is to stop dehumanizing them by treating them as if they are invisible. Instead, students must make an effort to establish a line of communication with them, build a relationship of trust and take on the labor movement as their own. It is important for the community to remember that without the sacrifices of the workers, campus wouldn’t be the same.