Secondary grade teachers protest for ‘equal work, equal pay’

Members of the Secondary Grade Seniority Teachers’ Association continued their indefinite sit-in protest for the second consecutive day in Ramanathapuram on Tuesday.

Demanding ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’, the association members have been staging continuous protests in Chennai since December 26.

In a show of solidarity, teachers across the State have boycotted schools and launched sit-in protests at district headquarters starting from Monday.

In Ramanathapuram, the protest was held near the entrance of the District Collectorate, led by the association’s District Deputy Secretary Ramanathan.

Mr. Ramanathan highlighted a stark disparity in the basic pay of teachers appointed before and after the May 31, 2009, cutoff. He noted that the ₹3,170 gap in starting basic pay effectively forces newer teachers to work for several additional years just to reach the same financial level as their counterparts.

While the reduction in pay for teachers appointed after June 1, 2009 was a blatant violation of their rights under ‘equal work, equal pay’, the subsequent State governments did not event think of rectifying the mistake the government committed, he complained.

The pay the secondary grade teachers received was on par only with the conservancy workers appointed by the Union government, he alleged. “While several of the employees with comparatively lesser qualification and experience, receives higher salary, the secondary grade teachers with higher education degree and other qualifications are receiving a lower pay,” he stated.

The State government which boasts about achieving social justice in every sector should also think of the teachers who were excluded from the ‘social justice scheme’, Mr. Ramanathan said.

If they were not being heard by the Tamil Nadu government, he said, they would not dare to change the protest into a more serious form of agitation.