Pre-University guest lecturers who have lost their jobs after the State government hiked salaries and workload, who have been protesting for over a month, began a relay hunger strike on Friday.
They have been on a protest at Freedom Park from February 14, demanding they be reinstated. Two meetings with Primary and Secondary Education Minister B. C. Nagesh failed to resolve the deadlock, sources said. There were 12,900 guest lecturers across the state with eight hours of workload and low pay. Following pressing demands to increase their pay, the government, while it almost doubled their pay, increased their workload as well. Of the 12900, only 10636 retained their jobs and the rest 2,264 lost their jobs, who are now demanding that they be reinstated.
Centre of Indian Trade Unions leader S. Varalakshmi said they had proposed to cut down workload of guest lecturers by a few hours and increase the salary by ₹100 per hour, and ensure that guest lecturers who lost their jobs are also accommodated, but the government had not yet responded.
