Tens of thousands of railway commuters, mainly office employees, were once again inconvenienced yesterday due to another crippling strike by engine drivers, railway guards, controllers, and stationmasters.
However, the authorities managed to operate six trains yesterday morning to facilitate commuters and to bring office workers to Colombo even during the strike.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) has cancelled the leave of all SLTB employees owing to the Railway strike.
Transport and Civil Aviation Deputy Minister Ashoka Abeysinghe said the strike had left many commuters stranded at railway stations or on roads while some people even had to skip going to work because of the strike.
“The government will be compelled to take stern action if the Railway strike continues until next Monday,” he warned.
The Deputy Minister speaking at a media briefing held in the Transport and Civil Aviation Ministry in Battaramulla yesterday said the government will take maximum efforts to minimise the inconvenience caused to ordinary people due to the strike and more SLTB and private buses will be added to the fleet countrywide.
He further said that authorities have not been notified regarding the strike. “They have not informed us in writing about the purpose of the strike. But they have informed the media about the strike and we would like to ask whether it is ethical,” he said.
The Railway trade unions had wanted to increase their salaries up to RM1 and REM2 levels initially. However, if that was done at that time, the salary scales of government servants of all ranks would have been in disarray, paralysing the entire government service.
That is why a committee was appointed by the President to review the demands of trade unions and all of them agreed to the recommendations made by the committee. The committee had proposed a salary increment effective from January 1, 2020. Therefore, the strike action of these trade unions are unjustifiable at this moment,” he said.
“We all know that the salaries of government servants were increased by Rs. 10,000 initially and this allowance was later added to their basic salaries. We gave another salary increment of Rs. 2,500 after that. However, we have planned to increase the salaries of government servants by 107 percent by 2020. So how can we justify this strike?”
He said all the professionals engaged in this strike receive high salaries. Normally, the salary of an engine driver exceeds Rs. 300,000, while the salary of a Railway guard is over Rs. 250,000. A salary of a stationmaster also exceeded Rs. 200,000.
“The strike is very unfair and we all know who is behind this strike. This is an attempt by certain politicians who lost power in 2015 to grab power. The strike was held with the objective of the elder brother becoming the Prime Minister and the younger brother becoming the President.”
“This strike was manipulated by a certain group of people and they have forcibly got others to join their strike. They obtained their monthly salary the day before yesterday and they engaged in a strike yesterday. People will never accept this sort of strike and we as a government will take tough action against them. We will not come to a discussion until the strike is called off by them and if the strike continues until Monday, stern action will be taken,” he added.
A Railway Trade Union Collective spokesman said the token strike was successful as a limited number of trains operated yesterday even though on average the Sri Lanka Railways operates about 350 trains on a weekday. The strike which began yesterday will be continued further until the demands are fulfilled, he said.
The strike action was launched on Wednesday night demanding a solution to the long-term problem of salary anomalies.
He said although the salaries for the public sector have been increased, the issues of disparities in the salaries of Railway employees have not yet been resolved.
“We have earlier appealed to authorities to resolve the problem, but our grievances were not addressed.”
Railway employees engaged in a work-to-rule campaign last week warning that they would resort to a strike if their demands were not met.
Add new comment