Pay disparity takes a toll on temps

Islamabad : Though subjected to pay disparity, Bushra Bibi has long been putting up with the discrimination due to a lack of job security.

“We, the BPS-16 and BPS-17 daily-wage college teachers, work the same hours and do the same duty as our colleagues with a permanent job but we’re paid three to four times less. Only the different employment status has disentitled us to pay equality. We can’t stand up against this injustice due to our vulnerability, especially when the likelihood of layoff hangs over our heads like the sword of Damocles,” complained the 36-year-old employed by the Federal Directorate of Education eight years ago.

The temp teacher, a widow, said she had three school going children to feed but struggled to make ends meet due to low wages.

Though the government has increased the minimum monthly wage from Rs15,000 to Rs17,500, which has yet to be enforced, the daily-wage teachers serving in the FDE colleges are paid around Rs15,000 every month.

Ironically, some girl colleges, which don’t get the government budget, including Islamabad Model College for Girls, Bhara Kahu, and IMCG I-14/3, the monthly payments to these daily wagers are even less than the minimum wage fixed by the government.

A college teacher told ‘The News’ that the current minimum wage for an unskilled daily-wage employee was Rs673.07 per day totalling Rs17,500 for 26 working days in a month, while the minimum wage fixed for a skilled worker was Rs990 per day totalling Rs25,740 for 26 days in a month.

She regretted that the daily-wage teachers were paid like unskilled workers, including peons and watchmen, despite possessing master’s, MPhil and even PhD degrees.

The teacher said most daily-wagers didn’t come forward considering themselves to be vulnerable, so principals exploited the situation by forcing them into taking more and more classes.

She said the low wages coupled with growing prices had made temporary teachers live a hand-to-mouth existence with their school going children being worst hit by straitened circumstances.

“Our salary is too little to enable us to pay for necessities in this very expensive city, especially in the wake of the unprecedented rupee devaluation and escalating inflation,” she said, adding that many of his low-wage colleagues have sent families to native villages.

Another temp teacher said equal salary payment was the right of teachers with similar educational qualifications. He said not only did the pay disparity take a heavy toll on the efficiency of daily-age workers but it increased the sense of inequality in society as well.

The teacher complained against politicians, including local MNA of the ruling PTI Asad Umar, over failure to keep repeated promises for their service regularisation.

“There’re many (politicians), who showed up in our protests as opposition members, lent support to our rights fight and promised us service regularisation but acted indifferently after rising to power,” he said. Ends

A leader of the Federal Government College Teachers Association regretted that pay disparity and said the discrimination caused stress and low self-esteem among daily-wage teachers.

He demanded temp teachers be paid the same salary as their colleagues with a permanent job to reduce their frustration and improve efficiency.

* Name changed to protect privacy.