Treasury can't increase wages of non-academic staff of state unis. - official

The Treasury will not be able to increase the wages of non-academic employees attached to state universities, a senior Finance Ministry official said in the backdrop of an indefinite strike action which is underway.

Non-academic staffers launched the strike this week citing salary anomalies which have existed since 2016.

Unions claim that they would receive a wage hike of only 92 percent while the salaries of other public sector employees would be increased upto 107 percent by 2020.

This was after the Government raised public sector wages by Rs.10,000 in 2016. The increase was to be added to the basic salary in stages across five years till 2020.

However, the treasury official added that the salaries could not be increased since other trade unions too would demand similar pay hikes.

Accordingly, the official said that this matter could be resolved by putting it before the Salaries Commission or by receiving cabinet approval to increase salaries.

(Reporting by Damith Wickramasekara)