Teachers’ association appeals to Governor over non-payment of salary to temporary staff of BDU

Teachers’ association appeals to Governor over non-payment of salary to temporary staff of BDU

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI 29.10.2024

The Association of University Teachers has appealed to the Governor-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University to intervene on behalf of temporary teachers and staff whose salaries have been withheld for a year.

In a letter to Chancellor R.N. Ravi, the association pointed out that 116 temporary teachers and staff of erstwhile constituent colleges have been working without salary for a year. The university ignored four directives in this regard from the Higher Education Department, said AUT president M.S. Balamurugan.

He said the genesis of the issue of constituent colleges from the year 2006 till the time the department converted constituent colleges into government colleges. When the proposal was implemented, the university absorbed 34 permanent teachers.

The government advised the university to pay salaries to 49 teachers appointed on hourly salary basis, 33 guest lecturers and 34 non-teaching staff of the 10 erstwhile constituent colleges appointed by the university when it launched courses without the government’s approval. The university, however, stopped salary payment to the 116 persons from November 2023, Mr. Balamurugan said.

The university would accept to release the salary but later cite ‘paucity of funds’ for not doing so, the AUT said.