The All Meghalaya SSA Non-Teaching Staff Association (AMSNSA) today reached out to the state government for a pay enhancement it says has been due for the last eight years.
According to Jennifer Synrem, AMSNSA president, the staff have given the government 15 days’ time to settle the issue or they will resort to agitation.
“We have not got our enhancement for a period of eight years now. We have been following up the matter by meeting officials and people in the government,” Synrem told reporters.
According to her, AMSNSA members met the Director of School Education, Commissioner and Secretary of Education and Education Minister in 2023.
This year they met the Commissioner and Secretary in the Finance Department in April.
“He gave us eight days to complete the process but we have followed up the matter again on May 8,” Synrem said. “He told us that he is processing the file. On May 27, in a WhatsApp message, he informed us that the Finance Department has sent the comments to the higher authorities to revoke the calculation of the salary structure of all the non-teaching staff.”
According to her, the salary structure of 1,241 non-teaching staff amounts to Rs 12.72 crore annually, as was informed to the Assembly by the government during the budget session in February.
She also said that the Chief Minister informed the house that the budget for them has been revised to Rs 23 crore but there has still been no enhancement received.
Over the years, inflation has eaten into the real value of their salaries and the AMSNSA members often have to work extra hours and on holidays too.
The staff are looking for an enhancement of something like 80 percent, which would be 10 percent per year but the Planning Department has written to other departments to find out how much they are paying their contractual staff, Synrem added, and, based on this, a salary at par with theirs can be worked out.
