Public university teachers continue work abstention

With public university teachers continuing work abstention for the second consecutive day on Tuesday demanding their exclusion from the "Prottoy" scheme under the Universal Pension Scheme, the pension authority on Tuesday issued some clarifications apparently to calm the agitating teachers.
The government launched the "Prottoy" scheme on Monday bringing the employees of self-governed, autonomous, state-owned, statutory or homogeneous organisations under the Universal Pension Scheme.
However, Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Tuesday termed the work abstention of university teachers as "illogical". He said he did not find any logic behind the protests.

The teachers and employees of 35 universities including Dhaka University continued their work abstention for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, bringing all academic activities to a halt.
Like their fellow colleagues in all other public universities, the DU teachers launched an all-out strike demanding their exclusion from the scheme. As a result, all the activities of the university, including class and examinations remained completely suspended.
DU Teachers' Association (DUTA) General Secretary Prof Zeenat Huda said: "…this movement is for the students. They will be teachers in future. Propaganda is going on regarding this movement."
She further said the movement would continue until the demand was met.
Prof Lutfur Rahman, former DUTA vice president and convenor of DU 'white panel', said the teachers and students of Dhaka University had always given direction to this nation through their movement. "So, I think this movement is also a movement of students."
"…we think that other people of the country will also participate in our movement, if the government delays the cancellation of this scheme. Although there are differences between the ideals of teachers in our university, we do not have any difference between us in this movement. We agree with this movement regardless of party opinion," he added.
DUTA president Prof Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan said the movement would continue until the demand of the teachers' was met.
FE's JU correspondent adds: All academic activities including regular classes and examinations remained suspended at Jahangirnagar University (JU) for the second day on Tuesday due to the work abstention.
Teachers and employees of the university observed various programmes on the day to press for implementation of their demand. They also vowed to continue their strike until the demand was met.
However, the Pension Authority's clarification, signed by Finance Ministry's public relations officer Gazi Towhidul Islam, mentioned that the government launched the new pension scheme from July 01, 2024 to bring people working in autonomous, self-governed, and state-owned enterprises and their subordinate entities under a sustainable pension system alongside people from all walks of life.
It said presently there were 403 self-governed, autonomous and state-owned organisations in the country, of which nearly 90 were maintaining the pension system. The remaining organisations are under the Contributory Provident Fund (CPF) where employees get a one-time lump sum gratuity benefit instead of that under the traditional monthly pension system.
The clarification mentioned that since a large number of people of the country, except for government, self-governed, autonomous and state-owned organisations, were out of a well-structured pension system, the government introduced the universal pension scheme to build a well-structured pension system for people of all classes and professions.
It said all employees joining self-governed, autonomous and state-owned enterprises on or after 1 July 2024 would compulsorily join in the "Prottoy" scheme. The finance minister in his budget speech for the fiscal year 2024-25 clearly mentioned that government employees joining on or after July 01, 2025 would also come under the universal pension scheme.
While making a few more clarifications about the "Prottoy" scheme, it said that all teachers, officers and employees in service till June 30, 2024, would be entitled to all pension benefits like in the past.
Presently Unfunded Defined Benefit system of pension is in force in case of government pension and thus all pension expenditure is being met from budgetary allocations. In the Funded Defined Contributory system a provision for payment of fixed monthly deposit from the salary of an employee has been kept. Under the "Prottoy" scheme, the concerned organisation will deduct 10 per cent or a maximum of Tk 5,000, which is less, from the basic salary of an employee and the organisation will pay an equal amount of money. Then both the amounts will be deposited in the corpus account of the employee.
The clarification has further said Unfunded Defined Benefit pension system increases the financial burden of the government which is not sustainable in the long run. On the other hand, in Funded Contributory Pension System, a fund will be formed on the basis of contributions received and investment profits and thus it is a sustainable pension system in the long term.
The Funded Contributory Pension System has been in operation since 2004 in the neighbouring country, India, it said.
It has further said if a teacher of a public university is appointed to the same post or a higher post in his own university or any other university after applying through the appropriate authority, he or she gets service protection and pay protection, so it is not considered as a new appointment.
In that case, he or she will have the opportunity to remain under the existing pension benefits. Only teachers and staff in public universities who are newly recruited on and after July 1, 2024 will be included in the "Prottoy" scheme.
Further, it clarified that, the Universal Pension Management Act mentioned about receiving pension from the age of 60 years but the university teachers go on retirement at the age of 65 years.
Thus they will start receiving pension from the age of 65 years and the government will make necessary amendments to the law as required, it said.
The monthly pension system is more beneficial than the one-time gratuity, it said.
It further said if Tk 5,000 is deducted from the monthly salary of an employee under the "Prottoy" scheme and the same amount is deposited by the organisation, after 30 years a pensioner will get lifetime pension at the rate of Tk 124,660 per month.
The amount of total deposit from his own income is Tk 1.8 million and if he receives pension for 15 years his total income will be Tk 2,24,38,800 which is about 12.5 times his deposit. Pensioners who survive for 30 years after retirement will get pension of about 25 times the amount of his deposit, it said.
Under the existing system, pensioners get pension for life. In his absence the pensioner's spouse and disabled children get pension for life. In the new pension system also the pensioner will get lifetime pension.
In the absence of a pensioner, the pension is permissible till the remaining period of 15 years from the date of beginning of the pension for his spouse or nominee pensioner. For example, if a pensioner gets pension for 5 years after retirement and dies, his spouse or nominee will get pension for another 10 years, said the clarification.
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