Government employees and teachers, who are members of various organisations affiliated to the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (Jactto-GEO), have announced that they will go on strike on August 9.
Members of the Jactto-GEO, who met here on Saturday, said the strike was in protest against the remarks purportedly made by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami against agitations by teachers and government employees. “He has implied that we are protesting asking for more money, despite being paid high salaries. This is misrepresentation of our protests to the public. We have only been appealing for scrapping of the contributory pension scheme as well as rectifying pay anomalies,” said R. Damodharan of Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers Association.
‘Stir despite high pay’
In an audio clip, the speaker compares salaries of a primary school headmaster and a graduate. While remarking that headmasters make more money and that the government had been incurring a huge expenditure to pay salaries, the speaker says the teachers are still participating in protests.
AIADMK sources said the remarks were made at a closed door meeting of party cadre and functionaries addressed by the Chief Minister last week in Salem.
M. Subramanian of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association and S Moses from the Tamil Nadu Elementary School Teachers Federation presided over the meeting.
