SAHIWAL: Up to 6,000 lecturers and assistant professors inducted on ‘contract’ through the Punjab Public Service Commission in 2002, and 2005 batches are planning a demonstration in Lahore for pressing the government to accept their demand regarding ‘Pay and Service Protection’.
They say the Higher Education Department (HED) regularized services of contract batches in 2009 and 2010 but their pay and service were not “protected” from the day of joining of service irrespective of the 2019 Supreme Court orders.
The protest call has been given by a 17-member core committee of the Punjab Professor and Lecturer Association. The protests will be first held in all districts of Punjab in February and later a sit-in will be staged in Lahore in the first week of March.
Dawn learnt the HED regularised the batches in 2009 and 2010 with the condition that “The officer will enjoy the protection of pay that he/she enjoys in BP-17 except for Social Security benefits admissible under Contract Employment Policy-2004”. They later succeeded to secure ‘increments’ of contract periods till October 19, 2009, like other government regular employees.
Later, the HED withdrew clause XI of ‘pay protection’ and added a new clause that ‘all increments and other regularized benefits have been withdrawn from 2002 and 2005 batches and their increment(s) already earned during the period of contract appointment are converted into personal allowances’.
PPLA activists say both batches have been deprived of seven and five increments.
Petitions were also filed in courts for the recovery and against deductions from salaries where courts ordered stoppage of ‘deductions’ from contract teachers’ salaries. Also, the Lahore High Court directed the Finance Department to issue directions to Accountant General, Punjab, to stop deductions from employees who were regularized from contract appointment till the day of joining.
The court stopped all kinds of recovery from teachers’ salaries. The HED challenged the verdict in the SC which was turned down.
Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2022