Teachers and Principals Trade Union issue warning to the government

Colombo (News 1st): The Teachers' and Principals' Trade Unions issued a warning to the Government of a possible trade union action today (Jan 22). While the Teachers' and Principals' Trade Unions launched strike actions on two occasions last year citing salary anomalies, since their demands had not been met, the trade unions have held discussions with the present Government as well. General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers' Union Joseph Stalin noted that it had been agreed that salaries could only be increased if teaching was made a closed service. He said the former government as well the current government agreed to it and the former Government presented a cabinet paper in this regard and now the current government to have done the same. He noted that this issue is about to be solved. Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers' Service Union Mahinda Jayasinghe said the Secretary to the Ministry of Education informed them to meet him for a discussion yesterday but eventually said that he has an urgent meeting with the President. He noted that thereafter 2 additional secretaries held the discussion with them and their recommendation was to provide a bonus instead of an additional salary until the teaching service is made a closed service and a salary structure is created. Jayasinghe added that until that is done they agreed to accept the bonus. He stressed that they should act from their side to issue the relevant circular in order for this bonus to be provided before the 3rd of February. However, he noted that if that does not happen, they will definitely launch a trade union action during the week starting on the 2nd of February.