University non-academic staff strike continues despite Cabinet decision

Colombo, May 28 (Daily Mirror) - After the Cabinet decision and a trade union meeting, the University Trade Union Joint Committee (UTUJC) has decided to continue with their trade union action starting today.

UTUJC Co-Chairman Dhammika S. Priyantha informed the Daily Mirror today that they are still awaiting the Cabinet decision concerning their issues, including salary anomalies.

"We held our trade union meeting today to discuss the next steps required to address our issues," he said.

Since there is no system to secure funding for this year, the President advised the Cabinet Minister to appoint an expert committee to study the salary anomalies of all government sector institutions and provide recommendations. He also advised including all solutions and proposals related to these issues in the 2025 budget proposal.

Following the trade union meeting, we have decided to continue with our trade union actions until the government provides a favourable response, Priyantha said.

He said that following the trade union strike launched by all non-academic staff members, all internal operations of the university system has come to a standstill.

The strike started by the non-academic employees of the university continued for the 27th day today (28). All non-academic staff members of the universities began their trade union action on May 2 driven by various demands such as rectifying a 15% salary cut imposed on non-academic employees.

"A proposal was sent to yesterday's Cabinet meeting to resolve the demands, but it was repoted that no favourable response was received from the Ministers," he said.