Central universities and the government-run Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas have not been paying gratuity and family pension to teachers and staff who joined after 2004, exacerbating the miseries of the kin of employees claimed by the pandemic.
Under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, all government employees are entitled to gratuity after retirement, as also are their families in case of death. Although family pension, given after an employee’s death, is not compulsory, the central government has been paying it to its direct employees, but not the staff who joined autonomous institutions under it after 2004. Central varsities, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas are such institutions.
In the absence of these benefits, the families of employees of autonomous institutions who have died of Covid are having to make do with the paltry one-time payoff under the National Pension Scheme (NPS).
The Centre implemented the NPS for employees joining government jobs after 2004. Although there was no provision for gratuity and family pension initially, the benefits were extended under the scheme through an executive order in 2009. Although the Centre implemented this for its staff immediately, all autonomous institutions did not.
A one-time payment is made under the NPS, which is a contributory scheme for which the employee and the employer each set aside 14 per cent of the basic pay plus dearness allowance, and it lacks the security provided by pension. The employees of autonomous institutions, however, have to be satisfied with 10 per cent.
The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) had started paying gratuity and family pension for all after the 2009 order but stopped in 2019 after the government asked it to without citing any reason.
According to the Payment of Gratuity Act, an employer must pay gratuity to an employee for every completed year of service at the rate of 15 days’ salary, provided the employee has served five years continuously.
“Denial of gratuity is a violation of the law. The central universities are not giving this benefit while most other central government employees are getting it. This practice is discriminatory too,” said Parveen, a faculty member of law at Delhi University.
Nearly 60 teachers have died of Covid at DU, many of whom had joined after 2004.
The families of the deceased who joined after 2004 are only receiving the one-time payment under the NPS.
Rajesh Jha, a former Executive Council member of DU, said the varsity received a letter from the University Grants Commission in May 2017 stating that gratuity benefits would not be paid to NPS members in case of death or retirement till a final decision is taken by the department of expenditure under the finance ministry.
“We have been waiting for over a decade. The families of the deceased staff who were covered under the NPS are in misery. We have written to the government, UGC and the DU authorities (for gratuity and family pension) but to no avail,” Jha said.
The KVS Pragatisheel Shikshak Sangh, an association of teachers, has also demanded gratuity and family pension for all staff.
“The families of the teachers who lost their lives during the coronavirus epidemic are only being paid a nominal relief amount. They are also being deprived of the benefits of family pension and gratuity. Such a move by the central government and the KVS is a gross violation of human rights and morals,” said a member of the association.
He said the gratuity and family pension of KVS employees who joined after 2004 were stopped through a government notification in May 2019.
“It should be noted that the Manmohan Singh government had in 2009 implemented retirement-cum-death gratuity and family pension. But they have been withdrawn now,” the member added.
The Telegraph sent an email to the education ministry on Monday asking about the denial of gratuity and family pension, but received no response.
