• Govt. comm. to draft report on salary/allowance anomalies 

Higher education sector non-academic trade unions, who earlier this week met the relevant authorities regarding  anomalies related to their salary and allowance, emphasised that the Government should provide them with concrete answers to prevent trade union action across 17 State universities.

“We met the Education Ministry, the University Grants Commission, the Management Services Department, and the Treasury. We received a good response. We were told that a report on the salaries and monthly compensation allowance would be drafted within three weeks, and a committee was also appointed for this purpose,” University Executive Officers’ Association Advisory Secretary Sampath Udayanga expressed hope, adding that these long drawn-out issues, which he said had not been resolved despite having been raised on previous occasions owing to their concerns not receiving adequate attention, should be resolved at least now.

He told The Daily Morning that even though the authorities’ response thus far seemed promising, whether the country would see trade union action from university non-academic professionals would depend on concrete steps. These trade union actions, he said, would get the support of around 35 trade unions from 17 State universities.

“We have been very patient regarding these issues, and tried our best not to resort to trade union action which would have impacted universities. However, in a context where the university system depends on two types of professionals, i.e. academic and non-academic staff, it is unfair to resolve salary-related issues faced by academic staff and ignore the same issues faced by non-academic staff,” he said, referring to the recent increase of the university teachers’ study allowance by 25%.

The meeting between university non-academic professionals and the authorities took place following a token strike held last week. It was alleged that the Government’s decision to grant permission to increase the university teachers’ study allowance by 25% was unfair, and that pay and allowance hikes for the university should not discriminate against one party and should instead be implemented in an equitable manner.