The teachers of government colleges across the country today started three-day work abstention demanding removal of "discrimination" in the eighth pay scale.

Classes at 308 colleges across the country were not held on the first day of the protests, Prof IK Selim Ullah Khondaker, general secretary of BCS General Education Association, told The Daily Star.

BCS General Education Association, a platform of teachers and officials belonging to the education cadre, has planned the protest movement as per their January 22 ultimatum to the authorities for immediate removal of discrimination in their salary.

Protesting teachers threatened to boycott classes from February 6-11 and exams from February 13-18 if their demands were not met by the deadline.

They also threatened to go for a nonstop strike from February 23.