News
July warming up for strike action
July is set to be a month of strikes with trade unions in several important state sectors threatening to call work stoppages over various grievances.
Around 300,000 teachers and principals plan to strike on July 26, the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) said, over the Education Ministry’s decision to promote teachers and principals on the basis that they had suffered political victimisation under previous governments. The union previously went on strike on July 4 but has not received a response to its demands.
CTU President Joseph Stalin said his members would hold a mass demonstration along with the strike. “Our first strike went without response from the government.
Hence, we decided to carry out another one. We will be following this up with a boycott of all national examinations, including the upcoming scholarship examinations in August, and the GCE Advanced Level exam,” Mr. Stalin said.
He alleged that the promotions were “political favours” by this government rather than as compensation for past political victimisation.
“These are teachers who are pro-UNP, and the UNP minister is favouring them,” he said.
“If there are genuine cases of injustice done previously, I believe financial compensation would suffice. Teachers and principals who have not gained the required qualifications cannot be promoted in this manner. Some of these teachers lack even the basic qualifications to hold these positions.”
Administrative officers in the service sector too are planning to strike. All-Island Service Executive Officers’ Joint Committee Chairman Nimal Karunasiri said his union would strike if it does not obtain a formal response from the government within the next two weeks proposing a solution for their woes.
Dr. Karunasiri expressed unhappiness over the government’s decision to raise only the salary of workers in the legal profession. “This gives an image of favouritism, as if somehow the legal profession is of higher value than other service-oriented jobs. This puts the rest of the service sector workers down mentally,” he said.
A total of 20,000 members of this union reported sick on July 11 as part of union action, and a number of them staged a demonstration outside the presidential secretariat before handing over a letter for the President’s Secretary. “We hope to discuss this issue with the President,” Dr. Karunasiri said.
The United Postal Trade Union Alliance, while content with the promises made by the government to meet their demands, have said that they are prepared to launch another strike if the authorities do not fulfil these promises.
Union Convener Chinthaka Bandara said the government had promised to resolve objections over salary grades. “They also promised to remove from his post the official in this system who brought about these issues,” he said.
The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) threatened to strike too, citing a series of demands the government had failed to meet. It will meet tomorrow (July 16) to decide when to launch the strike.
Dr. Haritha Aluthge, the Secretary of the GMOA, said the chief demand of theirs, an increase in the Disturbance, Availability, and Transport (DAT) allowance, had been delayed for over a month now.
“We discussed this issue with the Treasury Secretary on June 7 and he promised to get back within two weeks. It has been over a month now and we still haven’t heard anything from him, or from any of the other authorities responsible,” Dr. Aluthge said.
“The DAT allowance is calculated based on a formula and is increased from time to time. Both the Salaries and Cadres Commission and the Health Ministry recommended an increase but the Treasury had not yet made an official announcement,” he said.
The GMOA shares the view of the executive service officers’ union that the increase in salaries of judicial employees is unfair. Dr. Aluthge called it a “violation of the National Wage Policy”. “Judges’ wages are decided in a different manner but the rest of the employees tied to the legal profession fall under this policy. The government has ignored this and, instead, increased their salaries through cabinet papers,” he said.
The GMOA also insists that a “National Allowance Policy” be set up, similar to the wage policy. It also sees the free trade agreement signed with Singapore as potentially harmful to the local service sector.
Health Minister and Cabinet Spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne, said the government has provided doctors with sufficient increases, including the requested DAT allowance, and there was no need to protest.
“The Treasury approved the increase in the DAT allowance but the money hasn’t still been paid,” Minister Senaratne said.
The Minister also said that as the Justice Department was a “closed department” there is no reason to protest against the salary increases paid to its workers. “I told the GMOA the protest was foolish and a comparison between the salaries was stupid. We will soon be making the Health and Education departments ‘closed’ as well. Then no-one can protest against their salary increases,” Mr. Senaratne said.