Implement Marasinghe wages Commission to solve CEB wage issues: CEBTESU

Ceylon Electricity Board Technological Engineers' and Superintendent' Union (CEBTESU) requested to conduct proper job evaluation to establish services according to appropriate wage structure.

CEBTESU Secretary Jayalal Athukorala told the Daily Mirror that the Marasinghe National Salaries and Cadres Commission should be applied as soon as possible.

He said with the Marasinghe  Commission, no salary ratio issue was raised. 

"In 2003, the B.C. Perera Salary Commission was implemented. Subsequently, all salary issues have cropped up. As a result of this  Commission, payment of salaries were continued without any issue until 2012 with salary increments. 

In 2012, against the salary anomaly, only the executive grade salaries have been revised. In 2015 however, lower service grades at the CEB confronted issues with Engineering grades due to the illegal creation of a special salary structure for them as 'E-Grade scale," the union Secretary charged.

He said due to the E-Grade scale, large scale salary anomalies have been created among the CEB service grades. 

"As a result, the Lanka Viduli Podu Sevaka Sangamaya (LVPSS), filed a court case against the CEB engineers for increasing their salary illegally. 

In 2019, the E-Grade scale became null and void and the engineers were defeated," he said.

Due to the legal action, the CEB did not have a procedure to pay the salaries, and therefore, the Marasinghe Salary and Cadre Commission was introduced by the previous Government.

However, salaries of all CEB services should be increased in 2021 after three years, but due to the present issues, no salary structure has been created as yet, he said. 

Therefore, the CEBTESU requested to implement the Marasinghe National Salaries and Cadres Commission to solve the issues.(Chaturanga Samarawickrama)