SALEM: Raising their long-standing demand for fair wages, over 100 secondary grade teachers staged a protest in Salem, pressing the government to end the pay disparity among teachers doing the same work, on Saturday.
The protest was organised by the district's Secondary Grade Seniority Teachers Association (SSTA) at Fort Grounds. Teachers raised the slogan "Equal pay for equal work", highlighting the pay gap that continues to affect thousands appointed after May 31, 2009.
Their core demand was to revise the basic pay of teachers appointed after the 2009 cutoff, who currently earn significantly less than their colleagues despite handling the same responsibilities.
In 2018, when the SSTA held a similar protest, then opposition leader MK Stalin had assured the protesting teachers that their grievances would be addressed once his party (DMK) came to power. Following this, the DMK's 2021 election manifesto (Promise No. 311) assured periodic pay revisions and fair wages for these teachers.
However, even after four years, the demand remains unresolved. In 2024, after a 19-day protest by the association, the government said the matter would be reviewed, but no action has followed yet, claimed the protesters.
"We have been protesting for years, but our voices remain unheard. Just because I was appointed after May 2009, I earn significantly less than others in the same role," said one of the protesting teachers in Salem.
KS Rajendran, Salem district president of SSTA, said if the government continues to delay, the association will step up its protest. "If the government doesn't respond, our next stage of protest will be in September, a democratic jail-filling agitation, as per the resolution by our state executive committee," he said.
The basic pay for secondary-level teachers appointed before June 1, 2009 was Rs 8,370, while those appointed after that date received only Rs 5,200 - a disparity that continued across subsequent pay commissions.