Pay up: Teachers threaten boycott of census duties

Threaten to boycott remaining work on a census drive, if teachers are not paid in time.

FAISALABAD:

The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) has threatened to boycott remaining work on a census drive, if teachers are not paid in time.

According to a PTU spokesperson, the union will boycott all work on the census drive to begin this October if they do not receive their pending salaries in time. PTU district president Shaukat Sultan told reporters that thousands of teachers had accomplished their task of marking houses under the ongoing census drive in the country from April 5 to May 5 by paying door-to-door visits to every house in the province.

He said that during this period, the teachers completed the enrolment drive as per target assigned to them by the Education Department. “But these teachers have still not been paid,” he added. He said that the task of marking houses in the scorching heat was not an easy task as it has to be achieved by working round the clock.

The PTU has decided that if their outstanding dues were not paid within 15 days, they would not take part in the remaining census drive which was scheduled to kick off in October, 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2011.