FUTA laughs off SB’s call for returning to work

July 28, 2012, 9:45 am 

by Dasun Edirisinghe, the island

Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake has called upon the striking dons to abandon their trade union action and report back to universities on Monday (30).

Minister Dissanayake has said that education of university students has been affected badly and new admissions too will be delayed owing to the on-going strike.

Minister Dissanayake says the university teachers should not be swayed by a handful of teachers with a hidden political agenda.

However, the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) has rejected the minister’s call. The minister could go on making such requests but the university teachers would not call off or suspend their strike until and unless the government reached an agreement with the strikers, Secretary of the FUTA Dr Terrance Purasinghe said.

Dr. Purasinghe said that the dons had launched their strike as the last resort after many months of pleading with the government and university authorities and now the question of turning back simply did not arise.