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Station masters wave red flag, as authorities mull pay-cut to cover the loss due to strike
Commuters read a notice the striking station masters had attached to the ticket counter at the Fort Railway Station. It said that although station masters were on strike, the normal train services were available. Pix M.D.Nissanka
Station masters and the Railway authorities are once again on a collision course.
While station masters’ trade unions are warning of an indefinite strike if their demands are not met in the coming week, the Railway General Manager says the strikers’ salaries would be cut to make up for the losses the Railway suffered during the five-day strike since December 24.
The trade unions expressed their displeasure over the authorities’ threat to cut salaries to cover the loss of revenue.
Railways Station Masters Union leader Sumedha Somaratne told the Sunday Times there was no way that Railways Department could calculate the losses as the station masters did not issue tickets during the five-day strike.
He said the strike was called off after the unions held a meeting with Transport State Minister Dilum Amunugama. He said the minister had agreed to consider 10 of the 25 demands made by the union.
Apart from salary anomalies, the demands included increasing the number of trains in keeping with the increase in the number of passengers and updating the signal systems. They also demanded that they should be paid a coverage allowance if promotions are not given and their overtime payments should be calculated in a similar manner engine drivers’ overtime payments are calculated.
Meanwhile, the All Ceylon Railway Union’s President S.P. Vithanage said they would join the station masters’ trade union action if the Railway Authorities went ahead with their threat to cut the station masters’ salaries to recover the losses.
He said the department had no right to take punitive actions against trade union members because the strike caused no disruption to the train service.
Railways General Manager J.I.D. Jayasundara said he had instructed the accounts division to calculate the losses. He said they would calculate the loss based on the average daily revenue during the days before the strike and during the strike.
“The Railway fares are half the bus fares. With this meagre revenue, the department has to carry out maintenance work and spend for diesel. The fuel price increase has also affected the Railways,” he said, pointing out the difficulties the department faced in meeting the demands of trade unions.
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