Retired Chinese teachers protest pension program
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More than 200 retired teachers who used to work at vocational schools operating under State-owned enterprises (SOEs) staged a three-hour protest Monday in Beijing for more pension benefits.
The 206 teachers from 22 provinces gathered in front of the headquarters of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), the agency in charge of managing the country's SOEs.
A 57-year-old leader of the petitioners, who gave only his surname Yan, said the move was the 27th such petition by the group in the past six years.
Yan, who used to work as a vocational teacher at the China Construction Sixth Engineering Division Corp, told the Global Times Monday that the retired teachers had appealed to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, but none of the departments seemed able to solve their problem.
Wearing a badge saying, "Campaign of retired teachers from SOEs schools," Ma Mingliang, a middle school teacher affiliated with the Shougang Group, a large State-owned steel company, told the Global Times that he gets "only 500 yuan ($75) a month in pension funds from the company."
"This is not even enough to cover my monthly expenses," he complained. "The company has not treated me as a retired teacher, but as a worker, whose retirement benefits are much lower."
He said retired teachers from public schools are eligible to receive nearly 3,000 yuan a month.
Yan said she attended an urgent meeting at 2 pm Monday with SASAC officials. "I was told that SASAC, the Ministry of Education and two other governmental organs were discussing the practical regulations on this issue," she said.
The group dispersed after the meeting.
There are up to 60,000 retired teachers from vocational schools run by the SOEs throughout China, various media reports indicate.
