FUTA awaits NSCC recommendationsby Dasun Edirisinghe

September 27, 2011, 9:57 pm

University teachers who were on warpath against the government for its inability to increase the salaries are now waiting for the National Salaries and Cadre Commission’s (NSCC) recommendation to resolve their grievances.

FUTA Secretary, Dr. Terrance Madhujith told The Island yesterday that the NSCC accepted their proposal to increase the salaries at a meeting held on September 21.

"We proposed to the NSCC to add 20% to the basic salary of university teachers as the increment," he said adding that the NSCC officials promised to come back as soon as possible after consulting their superiors.

Dr. Madhujith said that the government had a history of reneging on promises it made to university teachers since 2008, but this time the Higher Education Ministry promised to grant their dues in the 2012 budget.

Representatives from the University Grants Commission (FUTA), Treasury, FUTA and NSCC participated in the discussion, he said.

University teachers resorted to trade union action to pressure the government to rectify their salary anomalies, with a token strike on March 15, 2011. They resigned from university administrative posts on May 09 to further press their case.

"We stopped our trade union action based on several promises given by the Government," he said.

The FUTA proposed, Dr. Madhujith said that to create a special professional category for university teachers, but the government has yet to responded to that.

He said that they also urged that 6% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Production) be allocated to education and it too has yet to be accepted by the government.