Railway service hampered by work to rule campaign
The four day long work to rule campaigned by the Locomotive Operating Engineers Union (LOEU) is to further hamper the railway service in the country unless the four employees that were sacked following the Ganemulla railway tragedy two months ago are reinstated , Chief Secretary, LOEU, Mahinda Karunaratne said.
Taking into consideration the Railway Department’s decision to sack the four employees prior to any departmental inquiry, LOEU has urged Transport Minister Dulles Alahapperuma to place the sacked employees back at work failing which he would have to face severe trade union action.
“As a result of the Transport Ministry’s failure to heed the trade union request for the past two months we initiated a work to rule campaign where we are strictly abiding by the railway speed limits. This has slowed down the train service and we have reduced the speed limits comparatively lower than the previous speed limits for the yellow traffic light,” Karunaratne told The Morning Leader.
According to Karunaratne, when there was a delay in any operational work including loading and unloading goods, LOEU with the work to rule campaign has decided not to cover up the delay but to continue until the end of the journey.
“Earlier if there was a delay we always increased the speed in order to cover up the delay but now we continue the delay further which has led to a prolonged delay on some journeys,” Karunaratne said.
“When we met the Transport Minister on Monday he assured us he would address our requests at the earliest but still we are not prepared to call off the trade union action until our demands are met,” Karunaratne further said.
By Nirmala Kannangara
Source: The Morning Leader
Tags: employees, journeys, locomotive, operating engineers union, operational work, railway department, railway service, speed limits, trade union, traffic light, train service, transport
