Higher Education Minister S.B Dissanayake yesterday urged university-non-academics to call off their strike and return to work, assuring them that their grievances would be addressed by the authorities.

University-non academics went on strike this Wednesday and vowed to continue until the government increased the salaries of all non-academic staff members by 11% as promised in February this year. The strike enters its third day today.

 “Please return to work. We cannot fix these problems completely but we will definitely extend our support to ensure that your grievances are addressed,” Mr. Dissanayake assured non-academics during a media briefing yesterday.

The minister added that union members who had pressured others to go on strike would be punished and legal action would be taken against them. He said the non-academics grievances could have been discussed further but that they had struck work before further negotiations could take place

“Revising the salaries is a complex task because they have to be on par at some level with salaries of government employees in other institutions. There are over 200 different categories in the university-non-academic sector and, therefore, there are several different areas that we have to look into,” he said. (Olindhi Jayasundere)