By George Bukenya
Government has threatened to dismiss teachers who refuse to go back to classrooms by Monday as engagement with their Union leaders is ongoing.
As the third term began last Monday, teachers teaching Arts and Humanities went on a sit down strike and vowed not to enter classrooms unless government accepts their demand of wage enhanced.
However the Minister of Public Service Muruli Mukasa tagged teachers as greedy and disrespectful to government given the fact that cabinet approved their demand to have their waged enhanced but in a phased manner.
“If by Monday, September 22, they don’t report to their respective schools and enter classrooms we shall regard the act as voluntarily quitting the job and government will have no any other option but to recruit new ones to replace them.” The Minister asserted.
He further said’ “Teachers are among the Public Officers who have had salary enhancement but they are just selfish and not being considerate to other Public servants.”
While addressing reporters at Media Centre the Minister revealed that humanity teachers demand improvement of their salaries by about 300 times something he says is an realistic and un attainable at the moment given economic constraints.
According to Muruli Mukasa, Teachers are among the best paid Public Servants for instance a graduate Officer who is in the U4 lower is paid UGX 1,078,162 monthly but other Public Officer with same level of qualification earns only 798,535 monthly.
The Secretary General of UNATU Filbert Baguma said that the Union is maintaining its stance regarding salary enhancement and those members won’t be intimidated by government threats of laying them off.
“Which law is the Minister citing when he says government will lay off striking teachers, we are within the confines of the law,” Baguma said.
He also said that it’s the teachers constitutional right to agitate for the salary enhancement and they doing it within confines of the law.
