Chennai: The faculty of IIT-Madras on Thursday began their nine-day protest against "delay" in implementing the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and warned of intensifying the agitation if the government failed to meet their demand.
Around 450 faculty members sported black badges to mark their protest against the delay in the implementation of pay panel report.
M Thenmozhi, President IIT-M Faculty Association, said all the teachers would be sporting black badges while on duty till August 14. "If the government does not respond to this protest, we have decided to take to other forms of protest such as going on mass casual leave and even staging hunger strike," she added. Apart from IIT-M, faculties of the other seven IITs in the country are resorting to the 'black badge' protest, she said.
The association had on Wednesday said that the present IIT pay-scales were neither commensurate with the required qualifications nor enough to attract fresh talent.
The faculty is "frustrated with the inordinate delay" in implementing the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation, it said.