Temporary non-teaching staff working under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme have alleged non-payment of full salary. These staff work as accountants, data entry operators and coordinator of Management Information Systems (MIS) and claim some of them are paid as low as Rs 8,600 but their sanctioned salary is almost double.
Officials denied the allegation and said that there is a misunderstanding in the calculation. V Rajkumar, State Coordinator Samagra Shiksha Consolidate Staff Welfare Association, said that there are over 1,500 working in the above three positions across the State.
“Accountants are entitled to Rs 16,166. However, many of us are paid in the range of Rs 11,000 — Rs 14,000,” he said. “The Central government has disbursed funds based on the salary fixed by the Project Approval Board (PAB). However, we are not getting the entitled salary,” Rajkumar said. A data entry operator is eligible to almost Rs 14,000, but many claims that they are paid as low as Rs 8,600. “Further, we get no benefits like maternity leave, ESI or PF. How can we work for such low wages?” an operator questioned.
An MIS coordinator, who handles operations related to the Education Monitoring and Information System (EMIS), said, “The disparity is worse between those working in district headquarters and block-level. The block-level staff get paid the least while those in Chennai and district headquarters get more,” he said.
An official from the Samagra Shiksha said that there is a misunderstanding. The official elaborated, “The Central government allocates a unit salary without accounting for the seniority. We pay senior staff members more and new staff are given the minimum pay.”
However, the consolidated staff alleged that even the senior-most staff in these three postings received only the sanctioned pay and all others received lesser than that leaving salary discrepancies.
It is also worth noting that the non-teaching staff in Tamil Nadu are among the least paid. Their contemporaries in Rajasthan get Rs 63,000 per month and those in Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra get more than Rs 30,000 per month respectively.
