The government has reformed the cabinet committee to review the recently approved Eighth National Pay Scale for public university teachers, with Finance Minister AMA Muhith as its convener.
A gazette notification was issued in this regard yesterday, which said the committee would also sit with the teachers to go over their complaints in order to find solutions.
However, the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association (FBUTA) has rejected the reformed committee because of keeping Muhith in it.
Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, president of the association, said the teachers had been demanding that the government drop Muhith from the review committee as his remark on the teachers’ movement upset them.
“We will not get proper justice if the finance minister is a part of the committee,” he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “We will not sit in a meeting with the committee if he is still in the committee.”
Meanwhile, Muhith said the cabinet committee will start its work in October.
“I am leaving Dhaka for the US on September 22 to attend the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings. I will come back on October 16, and then the committee will start its work,” he told reporters at his Secretariat office yesterday.
According the gazette notification, other members of the reformed committee are ministers of industries, commerce, education and law, minister or state minister of public administration, and state ministers of finance and planning ministries.
The Cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the prime minister, senior secretaries of the Finance Division and the Ministry of Public Administration, and senior secretaries, secretaries or acting secretaries to ministries or divisions concerned will assist the committee.
The Finance Division will provide administrative assistance to the committee.
This committee will make recommendations after reviewing unresolved issues and allegations of discrimination in the pay scale.
The government formed the original committee shortly after it cleared the eighth pay scale on Sept 7, which prompted public university teachers to launch their protest demonstration around the country.
Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the committee would work on removing salary discrepancies as claimed by the teachers as well as evaluate their proposals and make recommendations.
Teachers of 37 public universities across the country have been enforcing strike at all public universities, pressing for their demands including review of the new pay scale.
They have been protesting since May 14, advocating a four-point charter of demands that includes the formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for them.
Not only the public university teachers, but a number of government employees including primary and secondary school teachers have been protesting the new pay scale as well.
Teachers to resume work abstention today
Teachers of public universities will resume their work abstention programme today in demand of a separate pay scale, our Dhaka University correspondent reported.
The FBUTA (Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association) in a press release said the teachers would also participate a three-hour sit-in demonstration on their respective campuses.
However, all examinations will be out of the protest’s purview, said Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed.
“We still hope that the prime minister will accept our demands,” he said, adding that the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association will stage the sit-in programme at Aparejeyo Bangla from 11pm to 1am.
Asked about the reformed cabinet committee in charge of reviewing the pay scale with Finance Minister Muhith as convener, he said: “We will decide together whether we would sit with the finance minister or not.”
Earlier on Sunday, the teachers announced that they would not meet with the finance minister regarding the pay scale, claiming the minister did not have favourable attitude towards higher education.
