Daily Times

Finding no other way, hundreds of daily wage employees – teaching and non-teaching – of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) on Sunday decided to stage another protest against their non-regularisation and unpaid salaries.

The Young Teachers Association (YTA), representing all daily-wage employees of the directorate, said in a statement that they had knocked each and every door but got no relief, despite the fact that the Supreme Court of Pakistan clearly directed the authorities to regularise them. “Finally, we decided to hold a protest, and it will be continued until acceptance of our demands,” the statement said. It added that now they would call off the protest only after a written assurance by the authorities concerned.

Regularisation of more than 1,700 daily-wage teachers and staffers has become a hard-hitting issue for the authorities concerned. Moreover, those employees have not received their salaries for the past some months.

According to details, other than the Pakistan Council for Water and Research, and some other federal government institutions, around 1,750 daily-wage teaching and non-teaching employees are working in different institutions of the FDE. The directorate is the attached body of the Education Ministry and has responsibility of overseeing 423 educational institutions in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government had introduced a policy for contractual employees and daily wagers of the federal government. A sub-committee of the cabinet was formed to further discuss the devised policy, and the committee directed regularisation of 100,000 daily wagers, who had been working in various federal departments and ministries.

Recently, a three-member SC bench remarked that “all daily-wage employees should give joining applications in their respective departments”. In case any department refused to give the joining, they should file a contempt of court pea in the IHC”, he asked the employees.