A LONDON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR WHO CLAIMED HIS CARE

A LONDON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR WHO CLAIMED HIS CAREER WAS

RUINED BECAUSE HE IS INDIAN WAS TOLD BY AN INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL TODAY

(TUES) THAT HE WAS NOT A VICTIM OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION.

PROFESSOR CHANDRA SHARMA ALLEGED THAT THAT HIS HEAD OF

DEPARTMENT AT BIRKBECK COLLEGE, PROFESSOR RONALD TIFFEN, HAD BLOCKED

PROMOTION FROM HIS #21,OOO A YEAR POST.

REJECTING HIS CLAIM, TRIBUNAL CHAIRMAN MR FREDERICK MOSTYN

SAID: ‘WE FIND THAT PROFESSOR SHARMA’S SALARY REFLECTED RATHER THE

CONSTRAINTS THAT THE COLLEGE SYSTEM OPERATED UNDER RATHER THAN RACIAL

DISCRIMINATION.

‘

MR MOSTYN SAID THAT THE MASTER PROFESSOR, MR GEORGE OVEREND ,

WHO ALLOCATED WAGES AT THE COLLEGE, HAD ‘HIS HANDS TIED’ BY THE

SYSTEM.

ACADEMICS AT THE COLLEGE WERE ALLOCATED WAGES ACCORDING TO A

FIXED BUDGET, THEIR CONTRIBUTION AND THE SIZE OF THEIR DEPARTMENT.

MANY OF THE 28 PROFESSORS WERE ELDERLY, LONG SERVING MEMBERS OF

STAFF ENTITLED TO A HIGHER SALARY THAN 52 YEAR OLD PROFESSOR SHARMA.

EARLIER IN THE HEARING AT CHELSEA MR MOSTYN CRITICISED THE

METHOD BECAUSE IT WAS LIKELY TO LEAD TO PAY GRIEVANCES

HE TOLD THE MASTER : ‘IF YOU WANTED TO CHOOSE A SYSTEM FRAUGHT

WITH DIFFICUTLIES YOU WOULD CHOOSE THIS ONE.

‘I AM SURPRISED YOU DO NOT HAVE PROFESSORS RUNNING TO YOUR DOOR

LIKE WILD DERVISHES DEMANDING MORE PAY.

‘

PROFESSOR SHARMA, WHO RESEARCHES AND TEACHES APPLIED

MATHEMATICS, CLAIMED COMPENSATION AND AN INCREASE IN PAY FOR BEING

NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE COLLEGE’S SALARY SCALE.

HE SAID THAT FOREIGN PROFESSORS WERE ‘CONSISTENTLY UNDERPAID’

COMPARED TO BRITISH ACADEMICS AND THAT 11 PEOPLE TAKEN ON AFTER HIM

WERE PAID MORE.

BUT MR MOSTYN TOLD HIM : ‘YOU HAVE DONE WHAT MOST SCIENTISTS

SEEM TO DO – YOU THINK OF A THEORY AND THEN CHOOSE THE EVIDENCE WHICH

SUPPORTS IT.

‘

PROFESSOR OVEREND, THE MASTER, ADMITTED HE WAS A ‘PRISONER OF

DECISONS’ MADE BY HIS PREDECESSORS.

HE SAID THAT IF A FORMER MASTER HAD BEEN RACIALIST HE WOULD BE

CONSTRAINED BY HIS DECISIONS.

‘I COULD BE ACCUSED OF CONDONING IT –

IF IT WERE TRUE.

‘

SIXTEEN OF BIRKBECK’S PROFESSORS FELL BELOW THE NATIONAL

AVERAGE SALARY AND 12 ABOVE IT, WITH PROFESSOR SHARMA ‘FOUR OR FIVE’

PLACES OFF THE LOWEST FIGURE, HE ADDED.

AFTER THE HEARING PROFESSOR SHARMA, OF BRUNSWICK ROAD, EALING,

SAID HE WOULD NOT APPEAL AGAINST THE DECISION.

‘I AM SURE YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE DECISION BUT I SHALL

GO BACK TO WORK AND CARRY ON.

‘ HE COMMENTED.

ENDS