Over 12,000 non-teaching staff of all the seven IITs went on a day-long dharna on Thursday to protest 'anomalies' in their pay structure. They, however, but did not boycott work.

The All IIT Employees Union took the agitation route saying their demands were not met after last month's meeting of the IIT Council, the apex body to take decisions on IIT matters.

The employees' union has been demanding implementation of the new promotion scheme with effect from May 1, 1998 and better pay package for the Group-D staff.

"We had held meeting with the IIT Directors earlier. They had agreed to our demands. But it is unfortunate that the IIT Council meeting did not take up the matter seriously," general secretary of the union G S Kohli said.

The All IIT co-ordination committee had met last month and had requested the IIT directors to take up the matter at the IIT Council meeting.

The Council meeting discussed the issues but referred it to a separate committee for further consideration.

"This appears to be delaying process in resolving our case and it is not acceptable to us," Kohli said, adding there was no way but to go for one-day strike. "But we did not boycott our work.

The staff joined the dharna when they did not have any work," he said. The employees who participated in the dharna included, technical staff, laboratory staff and office assistants.

Meanwhile, IIT Kanpur registrar Sanjeev Kasalkar termed the agitation 'illegal' and appealed to the employees to return to work.