‘25% of professors will be promoted to grade 1’

A Cabinet committee tasked with removing “pay scale discrimination” has recommended the elevation to grade one of up to 25% of public university professors in grade two.

The recommendation came from a meeting between the committee members and the representatives of the public university teachers, who were demonstrating over pay scale grievances.

After the meeting, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told the reporters: “We have talked to the representatives of different organisations of the public university teachers and the meeting decided that 25% of the professors in second grade will be elevated to the first grade.”

Among others, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Law Minister Anisul Huq and Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, were present in the meeting held on Thursday.

The public university teachers, who went on a strike for an indefinite period in January, later postponed their work abstention following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s assurance of solution to their demands.

Protests against the recently-implemented eighth pay scale began in May last year as teachers pressed home their four-point demand that includes formation of a commission to make a separate pay scale for public university teachers and restoration of selection grade.

The four-point demand also includes an immediate revision of the pay scale to keep the pay of senior professors and senior secretaries of the government at an equal level.

The teachers have been claiming that the new pay scale ensures more facilities for secretaries and government officials but less for teachers.

They said the pay of teachers in the new pay scale remains two points below that of the secretaries, which is not only discriminatory but also humiliating for them.