PM assures agitating university teachers

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today assured agitating public university teachers of taking immediate steps in resolving the ongoing stalemate over “pay disparity”.

“We have trust and faith in PM’s words and we expect that she will take initiative to resolve the crisis as soon as possible,” said Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, secretary general of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA).

He was talking to reporters emerging from a meeting with the premier at her official Gono Bhaban residence in Dhaka this evening.

A delegation of the agitating teachers headed by FBUTA President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed met the PM.

In the one and half an hours meeting, the teachers briefed the premier the reasons of their protests, said Prof Maksud.

About resuming classes, he said the federation will hold a meeting immediately, if possible tomorrow, to decide their next course of programme.

Earlier, the call from the prime minister came last evening at a time when academic activities at all 37 public universities came to a near halt due to an indefinite work stoppage, enforced by the teachers since January 11, for removing “disparities” in the pay scale and also for retaining the selection grade and time scale.

FBUTA, a platform of all public university teachers' associations in the country, has repeatedly called for a talk with the prime minister, saying a five-minute talk with her will solve the crisis.

Teachers under the banner of FBUTA have been protesting the eighth pay scale since May last year, saying it downgraded their status. They have been pressing for a four-point charter of demands including formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for public university teachers.

Other demands include parity of salaries and allowances between senior professors and senior secretaries, and between professors and secretaries; and upgradation of teachers' status in order of precedence.