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Published : 08 Sep 2015, 12:59 AM
Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan says a Cabinet committee on resolving the salary discriminations has been asked to review the teachers’ pay scale and submit their findings.
A regular Cabinet meeting led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday approved the new pay scale, fixing basic pay at a maximum of Tk 78,000 and a minimum of Tk 8,250.
The Cabinet discussed the university teachers’ demands ‘with much importance’, said Bhuiyan.
“The government is fully aware of their responsibilities, and their role and position in society.”
In the seventh pay scale, secretaries among the civil servants, major generals among the military officers, and selection-grade professors of public universities were in the highest grade, Grade 1.
Senior professors were in Grade 2 and professors in Grade 3.
The new pay scale retained the grades of professors and senior professors but did not separately mention the selection-grade professors, which is one of the issues the teachers have been pressing the government for.
The university teachers have been abstaining from work and demonstrating alleging their status was downgraded in the recommended pay scale.
They have also demanded a separate pay scale for university teachers and review of the new pay scale.
The Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Associations (FBUTA) has also announced to work abstention on Tuesday to press for their four-point charter of demands.
The Cabinet secretary on Monday said, “Several demands of the university teachers were presented at the meeting. The Cabinet cannot immediately take a final decision on this.”
“That’s why the committee on resolving the salary discriminations has been tasked to review their demands and make recommendations.”
Bhuiyan said the teachers would get their salaries according to the new pay scale. “They will get paid as per the new scale of the grades they are currently on. Their current facilities won’t be downgraded. University teachers will not be afflicted in any way.”
But the agitating teachers expressed dissatisfaction over the secretary’s remarks. They have declared to carry on with their full-day abstention from work Tuesday.
FBUTA Secretary General Prof ASM Maqsud Maksud Kamal in a statement said the government ‘did not take into consideration the teachers’ demands and the fact that their status has been downgraded while approving the new pay scale and abolishing the selection-grade’.
“Under the circumstances, the announced pay scale’s role is not clear and we think this won’t reflect the teachers’ reasonable aspirations.”
However, Cabinet Secretary Bhuiyan said the teachers’ demands were ‘important and basic issues’.
He hoped the Cabinet committee on resolving salary discriminations would be able to get a clear idea about what the teachers are asking for.
He said representatives of the University Grants Commission, education ministry and related institutions would be on that committee, if needed.
“The Cabinet is deeply committed in retaining the university teachers’ status. The university professors’ current status will be preserved. The media reports published on this issue do not reflect the reality.”
The secretary also claimed that the recommendations of the Pay Commission and the secretaries’ committee did not bring any changes to the relationship (between the teachers and the government.
“No one was either brought up or down based on those recommendations,” he said.
