Teachers’ turn to labour ministry

Mou Chakraborty,
Kolkata, March 17, 2007
In order to get job security and ensure gratuity and salary as recommended by the pay commission, teachers of private English medium schools are now turning to the union labour ministry. They are urging the government to include teaching under the ‘Industrial Disputes Act 1947.’
The state school education minister Partha De, is already framing a legislation to streamline management, students’ fee and salary of teaching and non-teaching staff of the private schools. “The government is making a law, but if we can come under the ‘Industrial Disputes Act 1947’ we will be protected and also entitled for gratuity,” said Leena Chatterjee, general secretary of forum for teachers & non-teaching staff of private schools.
The teachers complain that while the schools make massive profits, they do not bother to give proper salary to them. “Many established business houses have set up schools because it is extremely lucrative. They also get income tax exemption. The employers keep minting money by charging high fees from students, but when we ask for higher gratuity and job security, we are tagged as greedy. All this things are happening because we do not have any law protecting us,” said Chatterjee. They will now collect signatures from teachers of all private schools and send their application to the labour ministry by April.
Till date, the teachers are neither categorised as an employee or as a worker. A recent Supreme Court judgment had described teachers as people who do noble work to help society. “No one knows under what category the teacher should be slotted. This is a sad state of affairs and teachers are suffering because they do not have a union. The teachers should ensure that their employers do not cheat them,” said Gurudas Dasgupta, MP and general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC).
Incidentally, even painters and actors in Bengal have their associations. The forum will now also try to inspire teachers and non-teaching staff to have their union in every school so that their individual problems can be addressed collectively. “AITUC will uphold the cause of the teachers of private schools of Bengal in the Parliament and we would even appeal to the Prime Minister. We would do everything possible to ensure that the teachers get to know which category of working class they belong to,” said Dasgupta.
mou.hindustanimes@yahoo.com