Services disrupted, public inconvenienced due to multiple trade union actions across the country

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Administrative officers, the non-academic staff of universities, health inspectors of the North-Western province are currently engaged in trade union action, citing several demands including solutions to salary anomalies. State sector employees had taken sick leave for both today and tomorrow (September 10th and 11th) and engaged in trade union action, demanding salary anomalies to be resolved and to condemn the actions of the subject minister and the current political administration. The people who sought the services of the Department of Immigration and Emigration today had to suffer due to the ongoing strike. A person at the premises stated that it was unfortunate to experience strikes in Sri Lanka. He added that it was high time the people of Sri Lanka should understand the true nature of our leaders. Another added that he started his journey to the Department of Immigration and Emigration from Monaragala yesterday only to see that his effort to get the service done futile. However, operations at the Department for Registration of Persons, the Foreign Employment Bureau, and the Registrar General's Department took place as usual. Chameera Perera, Convener of the National People's Council noted that Vajira Abeywardena claimed many state sector employees were corrupt. He said that he assumes that the state sector employees were disappointed due to this criticism. In addition, he questioned whether it was only the state employees who were engaged in corrupt activities. He questioned the misconduct of the politicians in the country. He further added that the Attorney General had filed 7573 indictments against the defendants of the Avant-Garde case. He went on to note that a number of politicians maintained close relationships with the Avant-Garde, some of them who are members of the current government. According to him when Vajira Abeywardena took over, a certain individual joined the ministry as the additional secretary and she left the country without notifying the secretary when the Avant-Garde case was taken up once again. Meanwhile Inter University Trade Union Federation commenced a continuous strike action demanding solution for prevailing salary issues. K.L.D.G. Richman, Media Secretary University Trade Union Joint Committee noted that a standard procedure was carried out in increasing university salaries. He added that in 2016 salaries were increased for all the government employees by 107.6% however, the salary for the university staff was only increased by 91.8% leading to an anomaly between the rest of the government employees and university staff. In addition, he stated that the increment was imposed only to a part of the university staff leading to further salary anomalies. He requested the government to resolve the issue immediately. H.G. Kelum, Vice President of the Postal and Technical Societies of Universities stated if the salary of the non-academic staff continue to be slashed the issues will escalate. Meanwhile, the strike action carried out by Public Service Officials of North Western, Puttalam and Kurunegala districts is still ongoing. Secretary of Public Service Officers Association, Mahendra Balasooriya said that a strike has been staged to demand solutions to issues pertaining to travel allowances and promotions.

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