No emergency repair work during strike: CEB union

No repair work will be carried in the case of a breakdown or power failure except at government hospitals, during the strike to be launched from noon today, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Workers’ Union said.

Union Secretary Ranjan Jayalal said the work stoppage was being resorted to in the absence of any government response for the workers' demands which include the salary revision from 1:6 to 1:9.

Addressing the media at the Centre for Society and Religion, he said the salary scales of administrative officers at the CEB had been increased on numerous occasions, but the salary scale of lower level employees had remained unchanged.

“These increments had resulted in the salary ratio between the administrative staff and lower level employees widening from 1:9 from 1:6 in 2015,” Mr. Jayalal said. “If we do not receive a favourable response by September 15, we will continue with the strike.”

Mr. Jayalal they expected the government to respond by noon on Friday and was adamant that special committees should not be appointed to resolve their issues.

“The corruption within the CEB is larger than the recently concluded 'sil redi' case. Because of huge financial frauds the consumers have to pay higher bills to cover up the losses incurred by the fraud and corruption. As a Union we will not allow the government to increase the electricity bills by even a cent,” he said. “We had discussions with the subject minister and other officials and we did everything we could, hoping our demands will be met. We resorted to strike action because nothing happened. It is now the minister’s turn to speak up and reveal to the public the burden of corruption palmed off to them by the higher levels of the CEB.”

Mr. Jayalal said the union had no political or personal agendas and what they were looking for was a change in the salary ratio. (Chaturanga Pradeep)