No redress on track for poorly-paid Railway sub station masters

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Sub station between Udahamulla and Nugegoda

Nearly 150 sub Station Masters in the Railway services are demanding to be recruited into the permanent cadre. However the Railways Department is refusing to do so due to budgetary constraints. The sub stations are managed by personnel recruited on a contract basis with a monthly allowance of Rs.4,670/- plus a commission calculated according to the value of the tickets sold at the relevant station.

More than 80 % of the sub Station Masters earn a salary below Rs.8,000. Discussions with the Transport Minister Dallas Alahaperuma last week, proved fruitless as he gave no indication of recruiting the sub Station Masters as permanent cadre. According to H. A. D. M. Kumara, President of Sri Lanka Sub Station Masters Association, the plight of the sub Station Masters has been made worse by the Minister’s decision to cancel the 28 holidays they had been entitled to.

“All we are requesting is for us to be employed as a permanent cadre of the department on a similar level as the sub Post Masters who were recruited as permanent cadre recently”, he said.

Mr. Kumara claims that some of these sub Station Masters have been in service for more than 25 years. More than 30 of them count over 10 years of experience in the post and around 60 others have more than five years experience. Many of the sub station masters retire as sub Station Masters as only 14% are recruited as Station Masters.