Under the country’s labour laws, a daily wage worker is entitled to a regular job after continuous service of six months but thousands of teachers working in government institutions remain daily-wage workers despite many years of service.

Ambreen Shahid is a teacher whose services were regularised by a cabinet committee in 2011 but has not received joining orders/notification from the Federal Directorate of Education so far.

She is among over 1,000 teachers whose services were regularised in 2011 by a committee headed by then minister Khurshid Shah. But they are yet to receive joining orders.

These teachers have been protesting in front of the Federal Directorate of Education among other places for the last two months.

“The cabinet committee regularised services of around 200 teachers and a large number of them managed to receive joining orders and notifications from the FDE but then services were not regularised,” she told Dawn.

She added that without the joining orders they remain daily wage workers.

“Forget joining orders, we haven’t even received salaries for the last six months. I think the government is using these tactics to get rid of us,” she said.

Recently Islamabad High Court directed the government to constitute a committee headed by a secretary level officer or retired judge to resolve problems of daily wage employees on merit.

— Text by Kashif Abbasi

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014