Budget 2012: Add allowances to salary says NTUC

The National Trade Union Center (NTUC) today called on the government to add all allowances paid to the public sector employees to their basic salaries.

NTUC Head K.D. Lalkantha told The Sunday Leader that the government needs to add all allowances including the proposed 2012 allowance to the workers’ basic salary.

He said the government has misled the public sector workers to believe that the 2012 budget has granted a 10 percent salary increase when it is only an allowance.

“The government has proposed the payment of an allowance of 10 percent to the salaries of the public sector employees in the 2012 budget and has not granted a salary increase as demanded by the workers,” he observed.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday proposed in the 2012 budget that public sector employees and members of the armed forces would be given a 10 percent salary hike as an allowance.

“There is a difference between a salary increase and an allowance and what has been said by the President is that it is an allowance,” Lalkantha said.

He observed that the public sector employees were in need of a decent salary increase and that a 10 percent allowance was insufficient due to the high cost of living.

A 10 percent of the minimum salary of Rs. 11,730 of a public sector employees amount to Rs. 1,173.

“We want the government to add all allowances into the basic salary,” Lalkantha said.

He added that the unions would commence an agitation campaign to win a decent salary increase for the working masses and to get the allowances added to the workers’ salaries.