Daily Mirror 11/07/2011
By Ranjan Kasthuri
The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) has decided to stop the lectures in all universities from next week as there has been no tangible resolution of their salary issue.
FUTA spokesman Dr. Mahim Mendis said that this decision was taken as their salary issue had not been solved. He said that the discussion held with the officers of the Higher Education Ministry had not yielded any results and they had decided to stop giving lectures.
Lectures have already been stopped in all faculties of the Peradeniya, Ruhuna and Jaffna universities, said Dr. Mendis.
The unions had proposed that, as an initial measure, the salary of a senior professor be increased from Rs.57,000 to Rs.120,000 and the salary of junior lecturer from Rs27,000 to Rs.70,000. At the discussion with the officers of the Ministry of Higher Education the latter had indicated that they were agreeable to these proposals -- but the salaries had not been increased yet, said Dr. Mendis.
