Sri Lanka Railways Forum

 Railway service will be hampered for 24 hours from midnight today (14), the Joint Railway Services Trade Union Front (JRSTUF) said. 

The Government’s failure to address the grievances faced by the railway employees was the result of the proposed one day token strike and according to the JRSTUF more than 10,000 railway employees are to join the strike. 

“Although Railways Minister Dulles Alahapperuma was keen on solving the issues faced by the railway employees the delay in resolving the issue was because of the lethargy of the Salaries and Cadre Commission, the Public Service Commission, the Treasury and the Ministry of Public Administration,” Secretary, JRSTUF Sampath Rajitha told The Sunday Leader.   

According to Rajitha, the Salaries and Cadre Commission for the past few years has failed to rectify the salary anomalies faced by the railway employees and the Treasury’s failure to allocate money for the distress loan funds. 

“The railway employees since July 2007 were unable to obtain  distress loans, an entitlement, as the Treasury had not released funds. How can the government say that it does not have money to pay distress loans when the government is spending money unnecessarily? Apart from this the Public Administrations Department has failed to pay the railway employees the disturbance allowance. Why do government departments inconvenience  employees so much,” queried Rajitha. 

Accusing the Salaries and Cadre Commission for their lethargic attitude in resolving the salary issues in government departments Rajitha said that most of the public sector unrest was due to the sluggish approach of the Salaries Commission.

“The sole responsibility for public sector agitation should borne by the Salaries and Cadre Commission. The proposed one day token strike starting tonight would hinder 60% of the railway service tomorrow and in the event the said government departments fail to address our demands at the earliest we would be compelled to take stern trade union action in the weeks to come,” said Rajitha. 

By Nirmala Kannangara
Source: The Sunday Leader

                            

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 7:55 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.