“We have not been able to pay our house rent, our children’s school fees or even buy monthly provisions. How can we when we haven’t received wages for three months?” said S. Chaya Devi, nursery teacher in a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) primary school.
Over 530 teachers of BBMP schools and colleges, whose services are outsourced, struck work on Tuesday, demanding immediate payment of pending salaries. The teachers staged a sit-in at the BBMP headoffice under the aegis of the BBMP Outsourced Teachers’ Association.
Syeda Rizwan, a BBMP high school teacher, said outsourced teachers were entrusted with additional work.
“Forget about overtime pay, we don’t even get our wages on time,” she said.
The association, said its president Lokesh N., had four major demands: equal pay for equal work and disbursement of salary by 10th of every month; regularisation of their services; direct payment of wages by the BBMP; and considering these teachers while filling vacant posts.
Mr. Lokesh said the BBMP pays the teachers ₹8,000 (primary), ₹11,000 (high school) and ₹11,800 (college). However, after deduction of service charge and agency fees, the outsourced teachers get ₹5,966 (primary), ₹8,695 (high school) and ₹10,400 (college) in hand. On the other hand, the BBMP pays ₹17,000 to pourakarmikas, ₹14,000 to its security guards and ₹12,000 to data entry operators.
He pointed out that though the BBMP council, around two years ago, passed a resolution to pay 11 months salary to the teachers, it was yet to be implemented.
BBMP’s Special Commissioner Ravindra met the protesters, received a memorandum of their demands and promised to look into their problems. However, the teachers have decided to continue to strike work until all their demands are met.
