JVP-backed CEB trade unions to launch sick note campaign

By Shelani Perera

JVP trade unions at Ceylon Electricity Board will launch a sick-note campaign on Wednesday in support of their demand that additional allowance approved for engineers be given to them as well. The JVP-backed Lanka Viduli Sevaka Sangamaya said it would continue to agitate against a ministerial directive to pay engineers a post-graduate degree allowance, professional allowance and disturbance allowance as it was unreasonable and discriminatory.

The trade unions began their protest campaign on September 18 from Kurunegala, followed by Kandy, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Badulla, Ampara ,Galle, Ratnapura and Gampaha. Wednesday’s sick note campaign is part of the series of trade union activities some 27 unions had organsied to press forward their demands, Lanka Viduli Sevaka Sangamaya Secretary Ranjan Jaya Lal said, adding that the protest campaign would culminate in an islandwide token strike on October 17.

“We held talks with the minister last week, but it failed. Then we were summoned for a meeting with the CEB Chairman on Friday. We told him that we are ready to call off the trade union action if we got a positive response by Monday,” he said.