C T Online Desk: Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader is sitting for talks with teachers who called a work stoppage at public universities to demand the scrapping of the Prottoy universal pension scheme.
The meeting began at the Dhanmondi office of the Awami League president at 11:30am on Saturday.
A delegation of at least 10 teachers protest leaders, including Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association Convenor Akhtarul Islam and General Secretary Nizamul Hoque Bhuiyan, went to the Awami League office for the meeting.
State Minister for Education Shamsun Naher and Awami League Office Secretary and Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister Biplab Barua were also in attendance.
The details of the meeting would be presented at a press conference afterwards, the Awami League said.
As per the government’s previous announcement, the Prottoy pension scheme for government employees was launched on the first day of the current fiscal year 2024-25.
The teachers of public universities have been conducting a work stoppage from Jul 1 to protest the scheme because they fear their post-retirement financial benefits will be reduced if they are added to it.
The protesting FBUTA says the decision to include teachers in the Prottoy scheme is ‘discriminatory’ because under the old plan, money was not deducted from salaries in order to fund a pension, but under the new rules, 10 percent will be deducted from salaries. The Prottoy scheme also lacks some of the perks in the old system.
Under the old system, an employee and their nominee would receive a lifetime pension, which will be reduced under the Prottoy scheme. In addition, the old scheme provides a monthly medical allowance, two festival allowances, and a Boishakhi allowance, which are absent from the Prottoy scheme. It doesn’t have increments either.
The National Pension Authority has said that the teachers, officers and employees who joined the service before Jun 30 are not required to join the new scheme.
