MPO-listed edu employees call strike

Staff Reporter :

Employees of private educational institutions have gone on strike demanding an increase in their festival allowance.

They are protesting against the current interim government’s decision to increase the allowance of teachers of MPO-listed educational institutions by 25 percent but not the employees’ allowance.

Md. Limon Biswas, Environmental Affairs Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bangladesh Private Educational Institutions Third Class Employees Council, gave this information.

He said, “Our demand is that the current interim government increase our festival bonus by 25 percent before Eid. Otherwise, we will be forced to give a stricter program.”

He said, there are more than 2 lakh MPO-affiliated school employees across the country. They have been living a subhuman life for ages on low salaries. They have been making demands to the government for a long time. But the government is not paying attention to their demands. So they were forced to give a program.

At Chakulia Secondary School in Lohagara Upazila of Narail district, employees of the institution are seen going on strike.

At that time, Md. Limon Biswas said, “We have previously met with top officials of various departments including the Education Secretary. They all accepted the legitimacy of our demands. At the same time, we were assured. But after the circular was issued, I saw that no action was taken regarding us.”

He also said that the festival allowance has been increased after almost 21 years. But there is no good news for the employees. The last time the festival allowance was increased in 2004 during the coalition government.
The Private Educational Institutions Employees’ Council has called for a sit-in program in front of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on June 1 with the same demand.