SSA employees' union to hold protest in Sangrur tomorrow

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 25

Members of the Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan Office Employees’ Union on Wednesday declared that a state level demonstration would be held in Sangrur on October 27 in protest against the state government’s failure to fulfil their long-pending promise of regularising their jobs. They said the Education Department had been delaying to implement the decision despite the CM’s green signal to their job regularisation demand.

They said the office employees were considered the backbone of governments to run the state, government and departments, but the Education Department of Punjab had been discriminating against the office employees regardless of the government or party in power. Instead of giving due rights to the employees, they were being ignored by the Education Department. Despite CM Bhagwant Mann’s decision to regularise the services of the contractual employees of the Education Department, the department had not implemented the decision for the past 17 months.

The leaders said in the past 17 months, many meetings were held by the Education Minister and department officials with the employees, but the employees received only assurances. They said if the CM had instructed the department to regularise the employees, then what were they (the Education Minister and the Education Department) waiting for. They said in 17 months, the department neither solved the issue of salary cuts of the employees nor regularized their services.

They said from time to time, contractual teachers had been recruited in the department and the governments had accorded them full benefits and also regularised them. The same process continues in the Aam Aadmi Party government as well. However, they said a lot of publicity had allegedly been generated in the past year by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains to regularise contractual employees, but it was far from truth.

Union leaders Shobhit Bhagat, Gagandeep Sharma, Sukhraj, Gagan Syal, Rajeev Sharma and others said the Akali Dal and the Congress had ruined the life of the contractual employees and now the Aam Aadmi Party seemed to be doing the same. The leaders said a monthly salary of Rs 5,000 of the office employees was being deducted, a problem which had not been addressed despite repeated promises made by ministers. They said besides this, the salary of the mid-day meal office employees had not been increased since 2019.

The leaders said the pen-down strike was started by the office workers on July 6 during which meetings were held with the employees by the DGSE, Punjab, and Education Minister Harjot Bains on July 7 and on July 11 and the demands of the employees were agreed upon and the strike was suspended. They said even after three months, no demands of the contractual office workers were being fulfilled.

They said there was resentment among all office employees. The employees said a state-level gathering and protest would be held in Sangrur on October 27 to express their anger against the government.

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