The Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) has requested President Ranil Wickremesinghe to schedule an urgent meeting to discuss the issues that prompted them to resort to and prolong their trade union action.

The association resorted to trade union actions in protest of the government’s latest tax policy and even boycotted participating in the 2022 G.C.E. Advanced Level examination answer sheet evaluation, as the government failed to respond favourably to their concerns regarding the PAYE tax hike.

“Even though FUTA’s legitimate demands to address the unjust and arbitrary new tax regulations have not been met, FUTA has decided to immediately suspend its boycott of the GCE A/L evaluation process as a humanitarian gesture to alleviate the problems faced by students, their parents, and the national education system in general, which have been exacerbated by the delay in marking GCE A/L answer scripts,” the letter addressed to the President read further.

The FUTA stresses that its board of representatives is of the opinion that a formal constructive dialogue with the Head of State is required prior to suspending the trade union action.

“To discuss the issues that prompted us to call and prolong these trade union actions for so long, we humbly suggest a meeting with you, as the president of the country.”