Govt. has reduced promised pay hike from 25% to 20% – FUTA

August 1, 2014, 11:14 pm , the island


By Dasun Edirisinghe

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake says that the government was boasting that the government had increased the salaries of university teachers by 20%, but it was only one of the promises on the basis of which the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) had suspended its 100-day strike in 2012, former FUTA chief and executive committee member Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri said yesterday.

Dr. Dewasiri said that the government had promised a 25% salary increment,but after one-and-a-half years it had granted only 20%.

The increment was granted with effect from last month and the government had reneged on its promise to pay arrears, Dr. Dewasiri said.

The FUTA, he said, wanted the 35% research allowance added to the basic salary and the conditions stipulated to obtain it should be relaxed as all university teachers could not do a research every year as they were too busy with teaching activities or attending to administrative duties, the FUTA executive member said.

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said that they would not pay the research allowance to those who would not engage in research activities. "We introduced the research grant to encourage university dons to engage in research as it is a need of the hour to improve our universities," he said.