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| Friday, 18 July 2003 |
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by Manjula Fernando and Moratuwa Special Correspondent Dilwin Mendis Academic activities in Universities were crippled yesterday with the non-academic staff staging a token strike based on several demands including a pay hike and enhancement of their monthly lieu allowance. Moratuwa University Vice Chancellor Prof. Dayantha Wijesekera said due to the non-academics strike most of their daily work came to a standstill and their final examinations were also affected to an extent. "Nevertheless, we managed to continue the exams as scheduled, he said. According to the timetable, today is the final day of the exam. The Vice Chancellor of the Ruhuna University Prof. Ranjith Senaratne said their science faculty practical tests had to be postponed due to the trade union action but the University grounds remained peaceful with no violence or protests. "Our Humanities and Management faculty was closed due to the strike but the Medical faculty functioned as usual," the Professor said. According to the Peradeniya University Vice Chancellor Prof.Kapila Gunesekera, they were able to keep essential services going despite the strike. Meanwhile, the Tertiary Education and Training Ministry in a press statement yesterday said it was clueless as to what the motive behind the trade union action of non-academic staff was since the ministry has already taken steps to redress most of their demands. "Some of the other demands are being discussed. With regard to another allowance they are demanding which is being exclusively given to Technical officers, we simply cannot take a decision yet since there is a court ruling. But this has also been referred to the Attorney General for his advice," a ministry spokesman said. He said the leaflet distributed in front of the UGC yesterday in support of the token strike bore the address of a JVP Parliamentarian and it contained no slogans of non-academics grievances. A meeting was held at the University Grants Commission yesterday with the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya members where they were asked not to hold the token strike since their grievances are being addressed. Although the other trade unions were also invited they had boycotted the meeting. |
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