Federation of University Teachers’ Associations Friday decided to launch a one-day token strike on June 21 against the government’s failure to pay arrears to them due for three years beginning from 1997.

The FUTA General Secretary said that a special emergency meeting of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (UTA) held on 15th June 2001 had unanimously decided to embark on trade union action for non-payment of salary arrears to the university teachers due for the period 1997-2000. An agreement was reached in August 2000 between FUTA and the Minister of Higher Education, Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Director General Budget of the Treasury and the Chairman UGC to rectify the salary anomalies with arrears. Accordingly, the rectified salaries were paid from January 2001 but the authorities failed to pay the arrears due from 01-01-97 to 31-12-2000 as per the agreement despite repeated reminders by FUTA. Therefore, FUTA is forced to embark on this trade union action. As a first step, FUTA will launch a one-day token strike on Thursday 21st June 2001. Stronger trade union action will be taken if no definite measures are taken by the authorities before 31st July 2001 to pay the arrears.