SHILLONG: The St. Edmund’s College unit of Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) has staged a black flag protest on the college premises on Tuesday against certain decisions of the college.
According to the staff, the primary demand is to ensure respect and dignity of teachers as the sponsoring body of the college had imposed certain restrictions.
The grievance is that the service rules for St. Edmund’s College (regular teachers) 2015 which had been agreed upon by the teachers and the management in a consultative manner are being unilaterally sought to be replaced by “Service Rules for Sponsoring Body Sanctioned Posts 2018”.
The staff alleged refusal on the part of the College to pay their legally sanctioned salaries unless they agree to ‘Service Rules for Sponsoring Body Sanctioned Posts 2018’. They said pay calculations of teachers are arbitrary and illogical and need to be based on revised basic of June 2012 along with tenure of service. The MCTA said all teachers of St. Edmund’s College should be governed by a fair, non-discriminatory, just service rules and conditions which conform to UGC norms as their appointments are as per UGC norms.
According to MCTA , their salaries should be in conformity with the “Equal Pay for Equal Work’ principle as has been ordered by the Supreme Court.
All decisions regarding the service conditions have to be decided in a consultative and democratic manner.
“There has to be a fair and transparent system of promotions and increments and proper paid system of career advancement opportunities to be provided by the management”, the MCTA said.
Individual service books need to be made available for teachers on an annual basis and medical benefits should be extended to all employees, it said.
The MCTA also demanded clarity on pension benefits including gratuity as per law.
“We demand that any shortfall in employer’s contribution to our pension funds have to be rectified immediately”, it said, adding that the legally sanctioned salary should be released unconditionally and immediately.
A letter stating the demands was submitted to management on Tuesday.
The staff hoped that the management will address the demands, failing which, the association said it will be compelled to exercise other constitutional rights to agitate.
