Uni. Non-academic staff meet today to fix strike date

November 15, 2011, 9:44 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe, The Island.

University non-academic staff will meet today in Colombo to decide on a date for the launch of their continuous strike demanding their salary anomalies be rectified immediately.

President of the Inter University Trade Union Federation R. M. Chandrapala told The Island that at their last meeting, the executive committee decided to launch a continuous strike if the government kept silent on their sick note campaign which was staged on Nov. 02.

"The Government has yet to respond to our sick note campaign despite two weeks passing," he said.

The trade unionist said that through their token strike on Nov. 02, they had reminded the government again that the universities could not run without their support. All non-academic trade unions of the universities including administrative and executive officers, would support the trade union action, he said.

Chandrapala said that they were fighting for the correction of their anomalies since 2006 as all successive government’s cheated them.

"We launched our newest approach to the protest on Aug. 03 by holding a protest opposite the University Grants Commission," he said.

Chandrapala said that they held several rounds of discussions with the National Salaries and Cadred Commission (NSCC), but they too had turned a deaf ear on the issue.