Birth pangs of paternity leave.... TEACHERS DENIED ON GROUNDS OF `PENDING' NOTIFICATION

MITA MUKHERJEE, TT, 10 Oct 2018, Calcutta: Teachers of several stateaided schools have been denied paternity leave by the managing committees of their institutions because the school education department is still to notify the benefit extended to male teaching staff by the Mamata Banerjee government two years ago.

The school education department has received many complaints about the managing committees rejecting applications on grounds of no clear directive being issued regarding the eligibility of male teachers for the 30 day childcare leave.

The finance department had issued a notification on implementing the government's new policy on paternity leave for male employees soon after the announcement in 2016.

Since the school education department did not notify the change separately, the managing committees of several institutions are apparently telling applicants for paternity leave that no such privilege can be granted without a specific order from the school education department.

The argument is that when the government included childcare leave in the list of benefits for female teachers, separate notifications had been issued by the finance and school education departments.

But heads of several schools said they had been granting paternity leave on the basis of the finance department's order. "My institution had allowed at least two teachers to avail themselves of childcare leave immediately after the finance department issued order," the headmaster of a state-aided school in north Calcutta said. "It was only later that we decided not to grant leave till we receive a clear instruction from the school education department. This is to avoid legal complications." Kaliprasanna Bhattacharya, the general secretary of the CPMcontrolled All Bengal Teachers' Association, confirmed that many teachers had filed complaints about being deprived of paternity leave.

"Managing committees can't reject applications this way. When teachers don't attend school during a bandh, their salaries for that day are withheld on the basis of the finance department's order. Why isn't the finance department's order enough to grant paternity leave as well?".