BENGALURU: Guest lecturers called off their one-and-half month-long strike on Saturday, after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah agreed to increase their honorarium by Rs 8,000, besides extending other facilities, including paid maternity leave for three months.
Siddaramaiah, who held talks with their representatives, requested them to report for duty, following which they are likely to return to classes from Monday. He clarified that most of their demands could be fulfilled on humanitarian grounds, except for regularisation of services due to legal complications.
Lecturers with less than five years of work experience will get a hike of Rs 5,000, those with 5-10 years of experience will get Rs 6,000. It will be a hike of Rs 7,000 for those with 10-15 years of service and Rs 8,000 for more than 15 years of service, he said.
Besides, they will get health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum, and gratuity of Rs 5 lakh after 60 years of age. The CM also agreed to grant one day paid leave per month, and three months paid maternity leave to guest lecturers whose workload is more than 15 hours per week.
He also agreed to simplify the counselling process, based on their experience in recruitment, giving weightage, continuing service at the same place where guest lecturers were working, and continuing their service there for the next year as well.
In fact, Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar held talks with representatives of guest lecturers last Friday, and announced some of the benefits, including a salary hike of Rs 5,000. Yet, they launched the padayatra from Siddaganga Mutt on January 1 and held a rally at Freedom Park on January 4.
Meanwhile, former MLC Puttanna met them on Friday and played a role in arranging a meeting with the CM, according to sources. Besides the guest lecturers’ association representatives, Sudhakar, CM’s political secretary K Govindaraju, Additional Chief Secretary to the CM L K Ateeq, higher education department secretary M S Srikar, higher education and technical education department commissioner G Jagdish and other senior officers were present.
HIKE AS PER EXPERIENCE
Lecturers with less than five years of work experience will get a hike of Rs 5,000, those with 5-10 years of experience will get Rs 6,000. It will be a hike of Rs 7,000 for those with 10-15 years of service and `8,000 for more than 15 years of service, he said