Non-academic staff members of the Sri Lankan Universities are on strike. They demand the Government must implement the salary increments promised by then Minister for Higher Education Mr Kirialle without further delay. Said promise was given more than a year ago. Alas, we have a new minister for Higher Education now. The new minister Mr Kabir Hashim is not interested to discuss the issue with the union leaders. The ultimate result is the closure of all the Government Universities for more than 30 days.
Day by day, the higher education of Sri Lankan youth are getting delayed. Not a single member of the government is interested. People say that the powerful ruling party seniors have no children. Those few who have children send their kids abroad for the higher education. Therefore the leaders of the government are not worried.
Our University non-academics have several unions belonging to both the ruling party and the opposition parties. Industrial action was not started by a single union. All union leaders were in agreement when they started the strike. One could imagine the situation of the members belonging to the the ruling party union, the Jathika sewaka sangamaya today!
While the government is ignoring industrial action, the membership of the non-academic unions are facing severe hardships. They haven't got their salary this month. There is no hope of getting the next month salary too. How they are going to Sinhala and Tamil new year.... one wonders.
Surprisingly, no one is complaining about the closure of universities for such a long period. :/
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