• Says government must not bear any expenditure to carry out these proposals

By Sandun A. Jayasekera

Immediate declaration of teachers service a ‘Closed Service’ and a firm pledge by the government to remove salary anomalies, pay increased salaries at a later date with arrears step by step are the solutions submitted by the SLFP to resolve the weeks’ old trade union action by teachers and principals, SLFP trade unionists involved in the protest campaign said.

They said if the government accepts the two proposals, the ‘Sri Lanka Nidahas Teachers Union’ (SLNTU) was ready to wait until next year to receive their revised salaries after removing salary anomalies of teachers and principals. General Secretary of the SLNTU, Divani Hettige addressing the media at the SLFP head office last morning said the government must not bear any expenditure to carry out these proposals as they have been made taking the country’s dire economic situation into account. The declaration and gazetting of teachers service as a ‘Closed Service’ is not a difficult one.

The government can do that immediately at no cost. We also need a firm word from the government when the government is ready to remove salary anomalies of teachers and start paying the revised salaries with arrears. We also have no qualms if the government pays salary arrears step by step due to its financial constraints,” Ms Hettige stressed. She said the SLNTU was ready to discuss these proposals with other trade unions involved in the trade union action and present them as a joint proposal to the government in a bid to find a permanent solution to the salary and service issues of teachers.Treasurer, SLNTU, Bandula Gamage said all the governments that were in power since 1994 must take the blame for the salary and service issues of teachers and principals by their failure to carry out recommendations of the policy document prepared by late Education Minister Richard Pathirana in 1994. Minister Pathirana got cabinet approval to the policy document of teachers service that included a fair salary increase to all categories of the teachers. But soon after he was given another portfolio and the B. C. Perera commission who probed the salary structure of the public service disrupted all good work proposed by Minister Pathirana.

The salary and service problems of teachers cropped up after this blunder remains to date, he said. However, Mr. Gamage kept hopes that the two proposals of the SLNTU would not pose any difficulty to the government to implement if the government is committed to finding a long-lasting solution to this grave issue. Media spokesman of the SLFP, Kurunegala District Parliamentarian Shanta Bandara said the SLFP expects to submit these proposals to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa shortly. “We expect to discuss these proposals with the two leaders. I don’t see any difficulty to implement them as the government must not bear any cost in that respect. However, the SLFP considers the trade union action staged by teachers and principals as their last resort to win their demands after waiting for more than two decades. We cannot say in any way that trade union action is unfair,” Mr. Bandara emphasised.

• All governments that were in power since 1994 must take the blame for the salary and service issues of teachers and principals by their failure to carry out recommendations of the policy document prepared by late Education Minister Richard Pathirana in 1994