UCG to put protesting Uni staff on no pay

Non- Academics to go ahead with 48-hour strike

February 22, 2012, 10:03 pm , The Island

By Dasun Edirisinghe

The University Grants Commission yesterday said it would act according to the government circular No. 890 which ordered that those who neglect their duties and participate in protests be put on no pay on such days.

The University non-academic staff has decided to stage a token strike today and tomorrow in protest against the government’s delay to rectify the anomalies in their salaries, as promised earlier.

UGC Chairman Prof. Gamini Samaranayake told The Island that they had to work according  to the government circular.

He said that university non-academics went to Court against that circular in 2007 but the Court dismissed their application.

However, the university non–academic staff, including administrative officers have decided to stage a 48-hour token strike.

President of the Inter University Trade Union Federation (IUTUF) R. Chandrapala said that they would go ahead with the earlier planned strike as they informed it to the officials of the Higher Education Ministry and the UGC.

He said that the National Salaries and Cadre Commission cheated them two weeks ago, but this time they would not give up their agitation until the demands were met.

Chandrapala said that all successive governments, after 2006, had failed to honour the pledges made to non-academics and the problem had worsened now.