Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approved the recommendation for alternative provisions of time scale and selection grade in the eighth pay scale for teachers in public universities and colleges, sources said.
The prime minister approved the Ministry of Education’s proposal in this regard on Thursday, sources in the Finance Division told the Dhaka Tribune.
The approval came after teachers of public universities demonstrated since the eighth pay scale was introduced – from which time scale and selection grade were dropped – claiming that the new pay scale will create discrimination against the teachers on the basis of salary.
Earlier, a Cabinet committee on removing salary discrimination against public servants also approved the proposal.
The Ministry of Financial Affairs hopes this latest move may ease the dissatisfaction prevailing among the public university teachers since the final approval of the pay scale, the sources further said.
“It will ease the tension, especially because the teachers alleged that due to the absence of those two provisions in the new pay scale, teachers would not be promoted to the designation of professors.”
The Cabinet approved the new pay scale for public servants on September 7, with raising the monthly basic salary of Grade 1 officials to Tk78,000 (fixed) while the basic pay of Grade 20 employees was fixed at Tk8,250.
The new pay scale also excludes the selection grade and time scale, which triggered widespread protests from public university teachers and employees, who waged movement for reinstalling of those two provisions because the new pay scale downgraded their status.
