CHENNAI: The Secondary Grade Teachers (SGT), who were on a hunger strike since December 27 demanding revision of their salary, called off the protest on Sunday after Chief Minister MK Stalin intervened in the matter.
Stalin issued a statement on Sunday, saying a committee will be formed under the leadership of the finance secretary (expenditure), principal secretary of the school education department and director of elementary education to analyse the demands of teachers, who were protesting for equal work and equal pay.
“We highly appreciate the Chief Minister’s intervention in the matter. Respecting his assurance, we are withdrawing our hunger strike from Sunday, and the teachers will resume duties on Monday,” said the secretary of the Secondary Grade Seniority Teachers’ Association, J Robert.
According to the teachers, the SGTs who were appointed after June 1, 2009, are paid `3,170 less each month than those appointed on or before May 31, 2009. Secondary grade teachers teach in classes 1 to 8 and over 20,000 SGTs across the state have been affected due to the discrepancy in salary.
For the last 13 years, the SGTs have been demanding equal pay for equal work. And to make their demand loud and clear this time, over 3,000 teachers from across the state started staging a hunger strike on the DPI campus on December 27.
In the last five days, over 150 teachers fainted at the protest site and were admitted to hospital.
Earlier, school education secretary Kakarla Usha and School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh also held talks with the teachers, but it yielded no result.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Post Graduate Teachers Association (TNPGTA), wants the committee to look into their salary discrepancy as well. “We also are facing the same problem as SGTs. The state government should include the commissioner of school education in the committee, and the committee should address our problem of discrepancy in salary,” said S Prabhakaran, general secretary of TNPGTA.