In a bid to revive interest in the profession and help teachers of private schools, who are affected by a Supreme Court judgment of 2004 that declared them ineligible for gratuity, the Government is working towards bringing in a suitable legislation to ensure that private school teachers are also entitled to it.

A senior Government official told The Indian Express that “there is a proposal to ring in some changes so that teachers in private schools can also get gratuity. A final decision would be taken by the Union Cabinet”.

The proposal, likely to be taken up by the Cabinet on Thursday, intends to remove the room for ambiguities in interpretation as manifested in the apex court judgment. The ruling—that teachers in private schools and educational institutions could not be construed to be ‘workmen’ and therefore not be entitled to gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972—had provoked sharp protests from teachers’ federations across the country.

In fact, suitable legislative changes to nullify the impact of the ruling was in the first list of demands submitted by Left parties’ trade unions to the UPA Government’s first Labour Minister—Sis Ram Ola—in May 2004.

However, not all private school teachers are denied gratuity. Some schools voluntarily pay gratuity, while some states also mandate gratuity payment in their education laws. Ameeta Wattal, Principal of Springdales School in New Delhi, said, “Our teachers are already paid gratuity. In fact, all entitlements for teachers as laid down in the Delhi education laws are met, in letter and spirit.”