Non-academic staff strike to cripple State Universities from Tuesday (10)
View(s):
Sri Lanka University Technical Officers Union at their Press conference in Dambulla.Pic by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa
Non-academic staff of 25 unions attached to 15 State Universities are due to join the strike as Union leaders insisted this week that the Government must bear responsibility for any losses caused by their trade union action.
Addressing the media in Dambulla, Sri Lanka University Technical Officers Union Treasurer Kapila Deraniyagala said their members would step away from all activities at Universities and converge on Colombo, on September 10, for a massive protest opposite the Finance Ministry.
Unions are protesting the Government’s failure to address a longstanding salary anomaly created, following the increase in public sector wages by Rs 10,000 in 2016. They say the salary anomaly only affects non-academic staff at State Universities and charge that authorities failed to provide a solution, though they have been briefing them on the issue since 2016 itself.