Teachers at Dhaka University and Chittagong University have rejected the Eighth National Pay Scale and demanded its revision immediately.
Members of Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA) formed an hour-long human chain at Aparajeyo Bangla yesterday in protest against the new pay scale, terming it disgraceful and discriminatory.
Professor ASM Maksud Kamal, general secretary of the DUTA, said: “The planned pay scale has downgraded salary structure of university teachers by two grades, which is disgraceful.”
DUTA President Professor Dr Farid Uddin Ahmed said: “The bureaucrats humiliated university teachers by giving biased recommendation for the pay scale. We have shown the highest form of decency. If our demand is not met immediately, teachers from all 37 public universities will launch a tougher programme.”
Professor Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, chairman of the television and film studies department at the DU, said: “Farash Uddin Ahmed [head of the Eighth National Pay and Service Commission] has launched a new conspiracy against the government by allowing discriminatory pay scale.”
Professor Mesbah Kamal of the history department said: “In India, teachers get higher salary than government secretaries, and here we are being discriminated.”
Among others, Prof Aktaruzzaman, dean of the Arts Faculty, Prof Muntassir Mamun of the history department, and Prof MM Akash of the economics department attended the protest.
Meanwhile, the Chittagong University Teachers’ Association (CUTA) yesterday demanded that the government reform the proposed salary scale rejecting the eighth pay scale, and uphold the selection grade for the public university professors.
The teachers will form a human chain and stage demonstration on the CU campus today and present an eight-point demand, CUTA General Secretary Prof Khusrul Alam Kuddushi said at a press conference at the CUTA office on the campus.
He said though the pay commission proposed 16 different grades, reducing them from 20, in the new pay scale, the secretary-level grades remain unchanged and offer illegal and illogical benefits to the secretaries, making the proposed pay scale questionable.
Among others, CUTA President Professor Dr Abul Mansur, Vice=President Professor Dr Syamol Ranjan Chakrobarty, Treasurer Professor Hanif Siddique and other members of the executive committee were present at the press conference.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
