Rs.1,600 m for teachers' pay hike
Cabinet nod to rectify salary anomalies of
principals, teachers :
Uditha KUMARASINGHE and Irangika RANGE
COLOMBO: The Treasury has pledged Rs.1,600 million to implement the
recommendations of the Salaries and Cadre Commission to rectify the
salary anomalies of teachers' and principals' services, Education
Minister Susil Premajayantha disclosed yesterday.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has approved the recommendations of the
Salaries and Cadre Commission to remove the salary anomalies of the
200,000 teachers and 16,000 principals, Minister Premajayantha told the
weekly Cabinet press briefing yesterday.
The Government as a policy has accepted the Cabinet memorandum
submitted for the rectification of salary anomalies in the Sri Lanka
Teacher's Service and the Sri Lanka Principals' Service.
The Cabinet has also given its approval to allocate Rs.1,600 million
to implement these recommendations made by the Salaries and Cadre
Commission.
There are five salary scales in the teachers' and principals'
services. After these salary scales are formulated, the circular will be
released. Before this circular is issued, the Ministry will release a
circular outlining the policy decision taken on this issue. It will
further ensure that these recommendations have been approved by the
Cabinet.
The Minister said the Salaries and Cadre Commission has made these
recommendations considering the salary scales of the parallel services
in all other state sectors.
"Teacher trade unions may not agree to these recommendations. But the
Ministry is going to rectify the salary anomalies of teachers and
principals. If the trade unions demand, there is no possibility of
addressing all these salary anomalies at once."
The Ministry has requested trade unions to accept this recommendation
as an interim solution and move to the next stage in keeping with the
pay hike of state sector employees.
This Government for the first time has accepted as a policy that
there is a salary anomaly in the teachers' and principals' services, the
Minister said.
"It is our responsibility to implement these recommendations. The
salaries of all teachers and principals will be increased based on their
grades." |