Elections 2019: Teachers demand a holiday after tiring election duty

Many teachers and other government school staff were on duty till late at night. Pic/AFP

Teachers exhausted after election duty on Monday, are demanding that Tuesday be declared a holiday for them, as they could not report to work then. Several teachers and other government school staff were on election duty till late on Monday.

After learning that the Gujarat Election Commission declared a holiday for election staff, there is much disappointment and anger among those who worked so that the city could vote.

Currently Tuesday will be considered paid leave (PL) as there is no clear guideline on whether these staffers who worked extra should be given a holiday. "School authorities are confused whether Tuesday should be considered as leave for those who were on election duty or a holiday, because there is no declaration regarding this by the election commission," said Uday Nare, a teacher from Hansraj Morarji School, Andheri.

In another argument, a teachers' association has been complaining about how all those who did election duty are not only paid peanuts, but were also not taken care of. "We had a long day of work on the day of voting. In many cases, people were on the job till 1 am in the morning. We are losing a day's salary from our regular jobs and getting such little compensation for such a huge load of work," said Rajesh Pandya from the Teachers' Democratic Front (TDF). The payment scale for election duty which begins from Rs 400 for peon level and goes up to Rs 500 for officer level is very little, according to the teachers.

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