Pune: Rosary School teachers go on strike over non-payment of salaries

What Else is Making News

Kajal Jain, a class teacher of Std II, said she joined the school this academic year and her salary was unpaid since December. “In the month of November too, they paid only half the salary. Since last week, we tried to convince the management to speak to us and finally the owner came to school and explained that there is some financial difficulty going on. He promised that by Friday, they would start paying the salary but no communication was received and neither salary came. So we decided not to take any classes on Saturday and went on strike. However, today I got a message that one month’s salary is paid, yet 2.5months salary is left,” she said.

Another teacher who requested anonymity said she has been a part of the school for nine years and the issue of irregular payment of salaries was seen last year as well. “On Monday, they have declared a school holiday. We have decided not to teach any classes from Tuesday onwards till salary is received,” she said.

School principal Farha Shaikh did not respond to calls or messages. Vinay Aranha, one of the owners of Rosary School, accepted that some salaries were due but said the matter was settled with teachers. “We had a meeting last week and had assured the teachers that salaries would be cleared by end of March. As a step towards it, on Friday we released some part of the salaries as well. To my knowledge, this issue pertains to 14 teachers only and we will ensure that their dues are cleared. Actually the issue arose because there was a lacunae at that branch in collecting fees from parents and several students fees are unpaid leading to this situation,” he said.