Guest lecturers working in government ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) across Karnataka have petitioned the chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and Higher Education minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan seeking their intervention in releasing salary dues from April 2020 to August 2020.

The guest lecturers staged a protest in Bengaluru on Monday and submitted a memorandum asking that their pending salaries be paid for the year 2019-20. They claimed that no payment was made for five months as in-person classes were not conducted owing to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

In Karnataka, 920 guest lecturers have been recruited at various government ITI colleges. The Government ITI guest lecturers’ association has asked the government to recruit them on a contractual basis.

Rakesh R, one of the lecturers said, “Recently the government announced the filling up of 1,520 permanent posts through KPSC. For these, 250 of us have been shortlisted.  Some of us have been working as guest faculty for over 20 years. We have no identity or poof of employment for all these years of service. It appears like our recruitment happens under the covers. We have no letter of employment, experience letter or a formal payslip. Instead of treating us as daily wage laborer, we must be taken on an official contract,” he said.

The lecturers also fear that with the filling up of posts  through KPSC, many would be rendered jobless. “It is an irony that we are the ones encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset among students and pushing them towards employment when a sword is constantly hanging over our heads,” he said. These lecturers said that the department would collect details on the number of years they worked as guest lecturers periodically and orally assure them that they put on contract.

Nagaveni E, a lecturer said, “We are paid Rs 100 per hour and it translates to Rs 8,400 a month. Government rules say that we can be employed only for four hours a day. In reality, we put in at least six hours per day but get no pay for it. The Directorate of General Training issued an order in 2019 citing that guest faculty must get 2/3 the salary of a permanent employee. Even this is violated,” she complained. 

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