Junior staff of education dept demand raises, allowances

Scores of junior staff members of the Sindh Education Department held a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday demanding an increase in their salaries and allowances.

Led by officials of the Sindh Education Department Lower Staff Association, the protesters who had come from various districts of Sindh, chanted slogans against the government and in favour of their demands.

The protesters said the government has set the minimum wage at Rs15,000 for lower staff, yet they were still working at a even lesser monthly salary – Rs11-12,000, according to them.

The association’s president Wazir Ahmed Keerio said that gatekeepers, gardeners, sweepers, lab-attendants and drivers mostly go outside of the office as part of their duties, but the officials operating the biometric system at their workplaces declare them absent from duty. “Sometimes, biometric system operators block the IDs of lower staff who perform their duties outdoors, and as a result, education department holds their salaries,” he said.

Keerio further said some 30 to 40 lower grade education department employees have remained deprived of their salaries in each district because of blocked IDs. “In Hyderabad region alone there 83 employees facing the same problem.” Accusing the education department of having double standards, he said it has allowed upgradation and time-scale to teachers, but the lower staff working in the same department is still waiting for service upgradation.

The protesters also tried to enter the Red Zone but police officers managed to hold them off. Following this they staged a sit-in outside the KPC.