The Joint Action Committee of teaching and non-teaching staff of Annamalai University have planned to go on an indefinite strike from January 30 pressing their demands including implementation of career advancement scheme (CAS) for teaching staff, regularisation of staff who have put in more than 10 years of service and promotion of non-teaching staff.
“Employees and pensioners of the University will observe a day-long hunger fast in Chidambaram on January 23 following which we would resort to an indefinite strike from January 30.
The employees have been forced to strike as their demands have not been fulfilled despite several promises by the State Government,” said P. Sivagurunathan, convenor of JAC.
Mr. Sivagurunathan demanded the State Government to immediately release the Seventh Pay Commission arrears to the employees. The government has put on hold promotions for the employees since 2013 while pensioners have been left in the lurch due to delay in providing pension benefits.
JAC said that senior IAS officer Shiv Das Meena who was then appointed as the administrator of the University in 2013 had suggested several measures to help the institution tide over the financial crisis.
However, only a few of the measures were implemented. Though two Vice-Chancellors have completed their terms since then, no solution is in sight for the financial crisis.
The government should immediately regularise the pay scale for teaching and non-teaching staff in the erstwhile Raja Muthiah Institute of Health Sciences.
It should also expedite the process of appointment of Deans and Heads of Departments for all faculties based on their seniority, Mr. Sivagurunathan added.
