The seven-day strike that forced the closure of 41 bus depots islandwide thereby causing inconvenience to thousands of commuters during the New Year season has been temporarily suspended till April 26.
“Following a meeting with the pro-government unions of the SLTB, Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma decided that a Rs. 4500 cost of living allowance would be given on April 26 included in the March salary,”, said All Ceylon Transport Workers’ Union secretary Sepala Liyanage.
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| Scene at the Central Bus Depot in the Pettah after the strike was called off. |
He said that if the promised allowance was not paid by April 26, the workers would resort to trade union action.
A special inter-department circular has been issued in this regard where employees will be paid Rs. 4500 rupees including the cost of living allowance of Rs. 1000 that is being paid presently. This allowance will be added to the salary when calculating EPF and ETF contributions.
Minister Alahapperuma told The Sunday Times that the Government had allocated Rs. 151 million for the payment to all the 37,000 SLTB employees. “The loss incurred from the 41 depots was 2.4 million a day. We are having discussions to make payments of the cost of living allowance that are in arrears,” he said.
The strike started in the Ambalantota depot with a demand for the cost of living allowance of Rs. 34,500 and requesting an increase of the festival allowance from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 5000.
Later the strike spread to the Hambantota, Matara and Galle depots. By Friday more than 40 depots were on strike including the SLTB depots in Colombo, crippling transport of thousands who had to face inconvenience.
SLTB services in Kandy, Gampaha, Ratnapura and Kegalle too experienced the same situation. |
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