All employees of Punjab aided schools’ union will take mass casual leave on Teachers’ Day, September 5, and stage a protest and gherao outside the residence of the Punjab Education Minister in his native village, Gambhirpur, Anandpur Sahib.The employees will wear black clothes and clang plates (thalis) as a mark of protest.The decision was taken at a meeting held today at Guru Nanak Girls Senior Secondary School, Amritsar, under the chairmanship of district union president Jaswinder Singh and secretary Ajay Chauhan.The union leaders said that the government had failed to fulfil the promise made to aided schools in its 2022 election manifesto.“The decisions taken during the meeting with the cabinet sub-committee on June 4 have not been implemented even after three months. In most districts of Punjab, employees have not been paid their salaries for the last eight months; in some districts, salaries have been pending for 15 months, while in others, they have not been paid for 19 months. The government is issuing new letters every day, but salaries are still not being released,” Chauhan said.He added that arrears under the Sixth Pay Commission for the period from 2016 to 2024 were also pending. Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) for retired employees had not been issued either, leaving them deeply disappointed despite repeated attempts to contact the DPI office.There were 9,468 sanctioned posts in 509 aided schools that have been functioning in Punjab since 1967. The number of posts has now been reduced to around 1,200 due to the abolition of posts. Even the employees working against these remaining posts are not being paid their salaries on time.The union has repeatedly suggested that the government should either fill the vacant posts in these schools under the 95 per cent grant-in-aid scheme or shift the employees working in aided schools to government schools.