Employees furious over govt’s broken promises
Railways Minister, Dulles Alahapperuma’s failure to rectify the salary anomalies created by the 2006/7 controversial salary circular, and non-allocation of sufficient funds for the distress loan scheme have irked railway employees, the All Ceylon Railway Employees General Union (ACREGU) told The Morning Leader.
Although Alahapperuma on several occasions had promised to address the grievances he has so far not taken any action to find a solution for the longstanding issues. He has even has refused to meet the trade unionists according to Secretary, ACREGU, Sumathi- pala Manawadu.
“When Alahapperuma was appointed the Railways Minister the railway employees had a ray of hope for a better future and good governance but we were proved wrong. He pays more attention to party politics than the betterment of his ministry. He first wanted two months to address our grievances but for the past two years he has not taken any measures to give us relief or made any effort to meet the trade unions,” Manawadu added.
He said that since the employees have realised that the minister is not concerned about the issues of the workers they are now compelled to take the minister to task.
“Apart from rectifying the salaries why cannot the minister allocate enough funds for the distress loan scheme? The minister said that the Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) does not have enough funds to allocate for the distress loan scheme.Then why did SLR spend millions of rupees on Deyata Kirula which was a total waste of funds?” queried Manawadu.
Accusing the Rajapakse administration for its failure to deliver the goods that were promised before the presidential election, Manawadu said that Mahinda Rajapakse became the president because the working class supported him at the presidential election.
“He too was a trade union leader and he promised to look after our interests once he was elected to office. But now he has ignored the working class and has even started to supress trade unions. As trade union representatives we will not tolerate this any more and will take action at the earliest to win our demands,” Manawadu added.
By Nirmala Kannangara
Source: The Morning Leader
Tags: ceylon, good governance, grievances, loan scheme, pala, party politics, presidential election, railway employees, ray of hope, rupees, salaries, salary, sri lanka railways, sumathi, trade union leader, trade unionists, trade unions
