NEW PAY SCALE DISPARITY : Protests to widen next week
Protests by the public university teachers and the Bangladesh Bank officials demanding removal of disparities from the new pay structure on Thursday badly affected academic activities at the country’s seats of learning and the central bank.
At least 4.30 lakh aggrieved government officers and 15,000 public university teachers earlier announced work abstentions from January 11 to push for restoration of the selection grade and the timescale, among other demands, in the new pay scale.
Teachers of 37 universities on the demand of retention of the selection grade and timescale, and officers of 10 branches of the central bank demanding their base salary is upgraded, held work abstentions, for two hours and one hour respectively.
The bankers will continue their work abstention for one and a half hour on Sunday and Monday and two-hour work abstention for three days from Tuesday. They also threatened further work abstention from January 14 unless their demand was met, said Bangladesh Bank Officers Welfare Council president Siddiqur Rahman Mollah.
‘If our demands are not met we will begin non-stop work abstention from January 11 at all campuses’ said Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association secretary general Maksud Kamal.
Meanwhile the aggrieved civil servants, along with the professional groups of engineers, agriculturists and doctors, announced that they would abstain from work for two hours from 12 noon every day for a week from January 11 across the country in protest at the ‘discriminatory’ pay structure.
During the weeklong programme, the professional groups and members of 26 Bangladesh Civil Service cadres would wear black badges while attending offices, according to a statement signed by engineer Md Abdus Sabur, agriculturist Md Mubarak Ali, physician M Iqbal Arsalan and Md Firoz Khan of the coordination committee.
Representatives of all BCS cadres, other than those of administration and foreign affairs, have been rallying for reinstatement of the timescale and the selection grade that helped them move to higher grades as they had limited or no scope for promotion.
Several agitating officers said the new pay structure had affected their status and discriminated against them in financial terms.
Bangladesh Bank officials observe work abstention on the bank premises at Motijheel in Dhaka on Thursday, demanding job upgrade. — Focusbangla photo
The professional bodies and the BCS Coordination Committee have been agitating under a single banner since October 2015 to push for seven-point charter of demands that also included removal of cadre and non-cadre disparities.
On Thursday, work abstention of university teachers of 37 public universities under the banner of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association brought to halt all academic activities at public universities for two hours from 11:00am.
Teachers of Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, Shahjalal Science and Technology University, Islamic University and others also held similar programmes at their respective campuses.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday asked the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, the finance secretary and the public administration ministry’s secretary to look into the grievances of the public university teachers and others in the government service to redress them.
The university teachers are agitating for review of the pay structure, retention of selection grade and time scale, and salaries for a certain percentage of the university professors that is equal to that of a senior secretary.
Teachers observed full-day work abstention on September 8, 13 and 17, respectively, besides taking part in processions and human chain on several occasions, and submitted memorandums to the education and finance ministers.
The Bangladesh Bank officials skipping their duties observed work abstention programme for one hour from 10:00am at the head office in Motijheel, branches at Sadarghat in old Dhaka, Sylhet, Rangpur, Bogra, Rajshahi and Mymensingh.
The officials have been holding different programmes since December 22, 2015, protesting at the 8th pay scale and demanding that their base salary be upgraded to the 8th grade in the pay scale from the current 9th grade.
The government on December 15, 2015 formalised the new pay scale for public servants in a gazette by abolishing the provisions of the selection grade and the timescales.
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