Whither post-FUTA strike?

AS the dust settles on the three-month strike of the university teachers, it is timely to consider its repercussions and the way forward. This effort is necessary given the significant fallout of the strike and the “catching up” the sector must do in order to minimise inconvenience to students.

Discussions between the academics and the Government kicked off at the beginning of the year and were a spill-over from trade union action that took place in 2011 with similar stress faced by students. With the Government failing to include salary changes that were agreed to in the previous year in the 2012 Budget, everyone knew that it would only be a matter of time before the issue flared up again.

True to form, as talks reached a stalemate, academics withdrew from their duties on 4 July and so started one of the longest and most profoundly felt trade union action in recent years. Students and their parents were the hardest hit with universities coming to a standstill. Another dimension of this problem was the Z-score issue resulting in the Supreme Court ordering an extra intake of nearly 5,000 more students and the union deciding to refrain from Advanced Level paper marking.

The prolonged strike also meant that the new batch of students was left at home for longer and exams were postponed. Post graduate students also suffered, with many having to give up on their studies, which they had paid for. These were serious constraints that the public had to deal with, largely because they had no other choice. As talks failed repeatedly and a stalemate developed between the Government and the Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA), the best that anyone could hope for was a compromise, but it proved long in coming.

As the strike neared 99 days, a fresh impetus was put upon the need to find a solution, which was largely galvanised by two massive protest marches organised by the Inter-University Student Federation and FUTA.  By this point the demands had been narrowed down to eight, including a salary increase, minimising political interference in universities, establishing university teachers as a separate professional service and allocating 6% of GDP for education.

This last demand was what garnered the most interest of the public that was used to seeing the highest allocation of funding for sectors like defence, which was given Rs.230 billion in 2012 and a whopping Rs. 290 billion in the upcoming Budget. This was a rallying call for the public that wanted a change of priorities to achieve the goal of holistic development.

The most disconcerting part of this extended saga was that neither the Government nor FUTA have clearly stated the outcome of the strike. During what was termed as a “joint” press conference but had only Government officials on Thursday, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake were annoyingly vague over the key demands made by FUTA. They declined to give out any numbers on salaries or how much it would cost the Government to give FUTA their demands. FUTA Spokesman Dr. Mahim Mendis in contrast insisted that they were “dissatisfied” with the Government proposal, but had consented to end the strike for the sake of the students.

In terms of good governance and transparency, it is necessary to understand what really happened during the closed door meetings and what it would cost the masses to fulfil. Given that this readily impacts on the taxpayer, it is the responsibility of both parties to be upfront with the public.

Moreover, if any salary increase has been agreed to, then FUTA has a responsibility to increase productivity within the university system so that the public can benefit. This is only fair and right, given it was the masses that felt the pressure of the strike the most and will ultimately pay the bill for it. All that remains to do now is to work hard to clear the backlog of activities such as A/L paper marking and absorbing new batches into universities, so that student lives can return to normal. The best pledge would be to refrain from such crippling strikes in the future, but given Sri Lanka’s track record, such a hope is surely utopian.