with the first line added i get the following errors

l symbol "$line" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl line 
+10.
Global symbol "$line" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 13.
Global symbol "$name" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 16.
Global symbol "$department" requires explicit package name at ./employ
+ee.pl line 16.
Global symbol "$salary" requires explicit package name at ./employee.p
+l line 16.
Global symbol "$line" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 16.
Global symbol "$name" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 18.
syntax error at ./employee.pl line 19, near "print"
Global symbol "$name" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 23.
Global symbol "$salary" requires explicit package name at ./employee.p
+l line 26.
Global symbol "$department" requires explicit package name at ./employ
+ee.pl line 29.
Global symbol "$name" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 32.
Global symbol "$name" requires explicit package name at ./employee.pl 
+line 34.
Execution of ./employee.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
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Declare those variables as lexical variables, i.e. put my before the first occurrence.  And put a semicolon at the end of the prints:

...
while (my $line = <EMPLOYEES>) {
  chomp $line;
    my ($name,$department, $salary) = split /\t/, $line;

print "n=$name\n";
print "d=$department\n";
print "s=$salary\n";
...
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Yes, it is perl. It complains because you turned strict on without tindying the code. See strict. Nevertheless, you have errors in the code like missing semicolons.