Non-academics renew their strike threat

August 6, 2012, 9:55 pm

by Dasun Edirisinghe, the island

University non-academic staff yesterday once again threatened to launch an all out strike, if the government did not meet their demands before August 10.

Spokesman for the Inter University Trade Union Joint Committee Wijayathilake Jayasinghe told The Island that when they struck, from June 06 to 26, the government promised to rectify their salary anomalies before August 10.

"We called off the strike on that assurance, but the government has still to issue the necessary circulars," he said.

Jayasinghe said that the circulars in this regard should be issued by the National Salaries and Cadre Commission in association with the Higher Education Ministry.

He said there was a need to rectify the anomalies in their salaries from 2007, but the successive governments cheated them by always making promises that the anomalies would be corrected but they never did it.

Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said they would look into the demands of the university non-academic staff.