SALARY ARREARS of promoted principals not paid:ctu

The Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Union said that no salary arrears were paid from the Zonal Education Offices to the principals who have been promoted within three years, in spite of the fact that a sum of Rs.2000 Mn. has been allocated for that purpose.

He said further that the delay for the payment of such arrears was the inefficiency of the officials of the Zonal Education Office who had not been able to finalise the files duly relating to their dues, although the principals had been promoted according to the Teachers’ Service constitution in 2014.

He alleged that these officials had returned to the Provincial Council the sum of Rs.2000 Mn. allocated for the payment of arrears , without making any payment until such time that He alleged that these officials had returned to the Provincial Council the sum of Rs.2000 Mn. allocated for the payment of arrears the year ended. “We spoke at length about this problem. We got the opportunity to speak to the Divisional Education Secretary several days ago. He promised us to pay the arrears within this year. If we do not get a genuine reply to our problems, then we will resort to trade union action.” Secretary of the Union, Joseph Stalin said.

Western Province Secretary of Education S.p.wijebandu expressed his views in this regard.

“There are files of about 35,000 teachers that have to be updated. There are various problems relating to them. Therefore, it is difficult to finalise quickly. We directed 2000 Mn. to the Zonal Education Offices to be paid after finalising the works of the files. But the sum of Rs.2000 Mn. had been sent with Rs.600 Mn. which is an excess of the required amount. It had taken place due to an oversight. We are going to pay the dues of the principals whose files have been finalized in this year.we need about Rs.400 Mn.for that purpose. There is a shortage of 175 Mn. Payments will be made by completing this amount.”