by Dasun Edirisinghe
The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) yesterday rejected the arbitration offer made by the Labour Department to solve university lecturers’ problems.
FUTA President Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told The Island that they had held a discussion with the Labour Minister, Ministry Secretary and Labour Commissioner yesterday morning.
"We were offered arbitration by the Labour Commissioner," Dr. Dewasiri said, adding that their membership would not be happy with it.
If they went for arbitration, they would have to stop the ongoing trade union action, but FUTA was not ready to do so, Dr. Devwasiri said. According to him, FUTA had called a special executive committee meeting today to decide on a future course of action after turning down the Labour Commissioner’s offer.
Dr. Dewasiri said that they had submitted their proposals to the government at the meetings they had with Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa.
"We do not need any arbitration to solve this problem," he said.
FUTA launched a continuous strike on July 04 crippling the universities.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has refused to talk to university dons while they are on strike.
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