Public university teachers have vowed to continue their movement against the devaluation of university teachers and demanded the revision of the Eight National Pay Scale, approved by the cabinet yesterday.
Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association (FBUT) President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed confirmed the announcement to the Dhaka Tribune.
He said: “The scheduled movement will be continue as the demands of the teachers were denied in the newly approved pay scale.”
Today, the teachers are scheduled to observe a full day long work abstention programme across the country to press home their demand.
The cabinet, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, yesterday approved a new pay scale for public servants with a minimum basic salary of Tk8,250 and a maximum of Tk78,000.
The cabinet also formed a review committee to oversee the demands of public university teachers for separate pay scale.
Professor Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, chairman of Dhaka University Television and Film Studies department, said he hopes to negotiate with the newly formed review committee in support of their demands.
On the issue, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said: “The cabinet cannot take sudden decisions and therefore it has decided to let the cabinet committee on salary discrimination reduction discuss with the teachers to solve their demands. Following that, the committee can place its recommendations to the cabinet.”
Replying to a query, he said the pay commission has some limitations in solving the demand of the university teachers immediately. However, the teachers will receive all facilities under the new pay scale until their issue is solved, he added.
According to the summary of yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the secretarial review committee agreed with the pay commission’s recommendation that now is not the right time to create a separate pay structure for the public universities.
The public university teachers have been protesting the proposed national pay scale since May 14, advocating their four-point charter of demand that includes formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for the public university teachers.
Their four-point demand also included the immediate revision of the national pay scale, keeping senior professors and senior secretaries of the government at an equal level of payment.