The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) threatened to
launch another strike, if the government failed to settle their salary
anomalies in Budget 2014.
FUTA Chairman, Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, said the government has so
far attended to only a few of their demands, even after a written undertaking
to attend to all of them in response to their trade union action. In these
circumstances, he said, FUTA would be compelled to resume their suspended trade
union action.
“We suspended our trade union
action, which lasted 99 days from 4 July 2012, in view of an agreement reached
with the Central Bank Governor that the government will appoint a five-member
committee headed by Minister D.E.W. Gunasekara to look into the salary issues
of the university teachers. We had nominated our two representatives about six
months ago, but the government has failed to appoint the committee as yet,”
FUTA Chairman charged.
He also said when the university
student intake was increased due to the ‘Z’ score bungle, the authorities
promised to increase teachers’ salaries by 25 per cent. “Those students are now
in their second semester, yet the promised salary increase is still pending,”
he pointed out.
Dr. Dewasiri accused the
government of failing to honour its promise to introduce procedures to resolve
university teachers’ salary anomalies within five years and also the promise to
stop political interferences into university affairs.
He also reminded the authorities that they are looking forward to the
forthcoming budget as the President had told them previously that the salary
matters can be resolved only through budgetary measures.
“We have appointed a three-member
committee to keep a tab on how they resolve our problems. Its report is
expected within one month. The government is under the impression that we
cannot amass a sufficient number to our trade union action. But we have already
proved that we can do it,” he said.
Source CeylonTodaywww.lankauniversity-news.com
