Disclaimer: The events and updates reported are as of November 25, 2022. 

Amidst the mid-semester examination season, ANC workers staged a protest against insufficient salaries and halted all operations for a brief period. The short-lived strike failed to drum up attention following a quick resolution the same evening. The EPC spoke to Chirag Kakkar, President of the SSMS, to gain more information about the workers’ demands and issues with Sodexo management. 

Kakkar claimed that the primary reason for the workers’ strike was the absence of a wage hike since the past four years. Despite working overtime during BOSM, the workers were not compensated with additional pay. 

While their demands were aimed at the Sodexo management, the workers requested help from the SSMS to convey their grievances to the Sodexo vendors. Following talks with the SWD Associate Dean, Dr Navin Singh, and the Sodexo Regional Manager, the SSMS received assurance from Sodexo that the workers’ salaries would increase within ‘a week or ten days’. After being assured by the Sodexo management, the SSMS convinced ANC workers to restart operations to prevent further chaos. ‘However, as of now there has been no increase in salaries yet. We will wait till tenth and proceed accordingly,’ Chirag added.

With regular price hikes happening at ANC for the past few years, the SSMS raised concerns about the stagnant salaries of workers. ‘Last price hike that I remember was when we returned to campus after COVID-19, and before that was during the second semester in 2019. In 2022 there have not been any price hikes so far,’ he claimed. While no other eateries on campus had reported such incidents, Chirag stated that this was the second instance of a strike at ANC due to salary issues. 

Repeated attempts by the EPC to talk to the ANC manager and workers proved unfruitful since they were not keen on revealing any information about the strike.

Note: Kakkar confirmed on November 25 that ANC workers were ‘now satisfied with their pay’ and informed that Sodexo had kept their word of increasing the workers’ salaries.