Uni teachers end strike in fighting mood

By Sanjaya Nallaperuma

The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) last week decided to temporarily halt their strike action which had dragged on for months over salary anomalies.
The President of the FUTA Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri told this newspaper that though they were not fully agreeable to all the proposals mooted by the government they had taken a unilateral decision to suspend their strike for the time being.
But, Dr. Nirmal Devasiri warned that if the government was to pussy foot this issue and refrain from looking into addressing the salary anomalies of university lecturers comprehensively,they will be compelled to restart their strike forthwith.
He said due to a few issues  both lecturers and the government had been able to come to an understanding on, the FUTA had decided to forgo the strike.

Failed to grant
The FUTA president asserted that due to the strike action that was launched by them the majority of university lecturers had been able to win most of the demands they had asked for.
The main demand that was put forward by the FUTA during the strike was that academics’ salaries should be increased. Though the government had failed to grant most of those demands so far Dr. Devasiri said that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime had consented to hike the salary of a senior professor by 1 lakh and 15,000 rupees. This has resulted in the salaries of lecturers of that category going up by as much as  15,000 rupees. Furthermore the salary drawn by a professor would go up by 17.000 rupees -- and a senior lecturer’s salary is to go up by 13,000 rupees.
A second grade lecturer’s salary would go up by 12,000 rupees while a lecturer’s take home salary will be increased by 8.000 rupees.
Dr. Nirmal Devasiri insisted that though their Federation was not entirely pleased with the salary structure mooted by the government, they would continue to hold more talks with the government in order to win their, ‘just demands’ as he called them.

Trying to scupper
He also said that though the government has shown a readiness to solve the salary anomalies of lecturers there were still many shortcomings within the university structure.
He also promised to initiate talks in this regard with the government as he said that without improving the quality of university education there is no way for the university system in this country to reach high standards maintained by prestigious universities abroad.
Dr. Devasiri also charged that when the FUTA was playing a pivotal role to seek a better future for all university lecturers in this country; a certain body affiliated to the government was trying to scupper their work. But, he warned that they could not be silenced by threats or by  spoiler work and that they will continue to take a stand for the rights of the university lecturers whatever the government in power was.