No online classes until teachers’ demands are met, strikes to continue
View(s):CTU Secretary wants Education Minister to submit Cabinet paper resolving salary anomalies issue
Teacher unions will continue their boycott of online classes into next week and do not intend to end their strike action until all their demands are met, a senior trade unionist said recently.
At a discussion held between unions representing teachers and principals at Temple Trees on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa promised that a proposal to resolve the long-standing salary anomaly issue affecting the teachers’ and principals’ service and convert the service into a ‘closed service’ will be submitted to Cabinet tomorrow.
While the Government had requested teachers to end their strike and continue online classes from Monday, unions pledged to continue with the strikes until all demands have been met.
Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin said they are not prepared to accept a simple verbal pledge from the Prime Minister.
“We want the Education Minister to present a Cabinet paper resolving this issue. We know that such a paper on the salary anomaly issue dated July 22, 2021, has already been prepared. We expect that to be submitted and approved,” Mr Stalin said.
He claimed that around 30 trade unions in the education sector have joined their strike action and insisted they will continue their trade union action into next week.
Teachers held back from online classes for the 19th day on Friday. Teacher unions have also been holding protests across the country throughout this week as well.
The unions have also lent their support to the protest campaign against the controversial Kotelawala National Defence University (KNDU) Bill.
Mr Stalin said they, along with trade unions such as the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) and the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF), have all joined forces to pressure the Government to scrap the bill.
“Our strike action is also tied to the KNDU bill and we will continue the strike until it too is scrapped,” he said. (SJ)