Sri Lankan teachers’ unions stick to their guns, continue strike

ECONOMYNEXT – After rejecting a government proposal to increase their salaries in two installments from 2022, an alliance of teachers’ unions and school principals in Sri Lanka said on Wednesday (13) that it would pursue what turned out to be one of the longest strikes in the history of the island.

Now in its fourth month, the strike is likely to derail government plans to reopen around 5,000 of the more than 10,000 schools that were closed for most of the year due to the COVID-19 outbreak. . The strike has already hampered distance learning efforts, as teachers have stayed away from online education since July.

The unions are stubbornly clinging to a demand for the implementation of the salary recommendations proposed in the Subodhini commission report. The Subhodnii report is a document produced by a committee appointed by a former Minister of Education.

“We have decided to continue our strike, asking the government to implement the recommendations of the Subodhini report in order to solve our problem,” Ceylon Teachers’ Union secretary Joseph Stalin told private television station Derana on Wednesday. .

Instead of Subodhini’s recommendations, Stalin said, the unions are receptive to another report from the current cabinet, but are against his proposal to increase their wages in four stages. The unions are demanding the increase in one step, he said.

” We have noticed that [Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa] was trying to give us what we asked for, but the secretary of treasury and the director of budget proposals [was] saying it can’t be done, ”Stalin said.

A crucial round of talks took place on Tuesday (12) between union leaders and a group of ministers led by Prime Rajapalsa. The meeting ended without a decision.

“It was said at the meeting that they still had no money allocated for this in the budget. If a final decision is not made by October 21, when they say they will open some schools, we will make the decision to go to school or not, ”Stalin told Derana TV.

“We will also continue our strike with online education. We would have already started online education if these discussions had taken place earlier. The cabinet decision was released on August 30. We continued to request a meeting with the higher authorities, and only yesterday we had the opportunity.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan ruling Podujana Peramuna MP SB Dissanayaka said the president and prime minister have tried to resolve the issue amicably.

“Teachers should come to school and start working. Otherwise, we must defeat and suppress the strike and restart the schools. It has been done in the past. Rich, advanced countries like Singapore have done it. Otherwise, they will always be like us, ”Dissanayake told reporters on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the strike of teachers and directors over salary anomalies has continued for 94 days.

Teachers and school principals are at daggers drawn with the government demanding a solution to the salary issues that have plagued the service for 24 years.

Tuesday’s meeting aimed to end the strike before starting small schools with a student population of less than 200 on October 21.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the government proposed reducing the additional payment to two to three previously and maintained that it could not be granted immediately in the 2022 budget, Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said.

The persistent strike has already drawn criticism from the public, particularly over the way the government is handling the issue of teachers.

Minister Gunawardena previously declared the services of teachers and principals as a “closed service” on August 31.

The services of teachers and school directors are part of the public service. But declaring them a closed service will allow the government to treat teachers and principals separately from the rest of the civil service when resolving their demands for wage anomalies, wages, transfers and other benefits.

It also means that teachers and principals’ staff cannot be transferred to other public services.

The government earlier announced a special allowance of 5,000 rupees for teachers and principals who will be on duty in September and October 2021, when the government planned to hold scholarship exams. of advanced level and 5th year of the GCE.

The education ministry had postponed the two key reviews, amid much public criticism. (Colombo / Oct 13, 2021)