A long fight for benefits

Employees of Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram have been waging a fight for benefits ever since they were employed in 2010.

On Monday, they approached the Madras High Court for relief. This comes after several protests by the employees — who are all in unclassified posts at present — demanding their jobs be regularised. The employees say they have no benefits: no annual increments, no provident fund or leave benefits.

“We were hired in October 2010 through the Teachers Recruitment Board after we passed an exam. We were told then, that as per a government order, we would be regularised in six months. But more than three years later, this has not happened,” said an employee.

In August last year, the employees staged a protest on the library’s premises to push their demands. “We managed to get compensatory leave after the protest. But our salary was docked for one day,” he said. “We have appealed at every level,” said another employee.

In January, a woman employee sent a petition to the Chief Minister’s special cell asking for her salary to be paid during her maternity leave. However, her petition was rejected on the grounds that her post was unclassified.

Over the last three years, six other women employees of the library have gone on maternity leave, all of them without pay, said staff at the library.

The library, inaugurated in 2010, houses 5.5 lakh books and receives around 1,500 visitors every day.