Railway operations to continue despite TU action

The railway operations would continue despite railway guards' trade union action, General Managers of Railways S.S Mudalige told the Timesonline.

Responding to the Station Masters trade union action of withdrawing from issuing train tickets from 4.30 pm today, the General Manger said that the dispute between the Station Masters union and the Railway guards led towards a trade union action.

Mr Mudalige said the train operations are ongoing and therefore people could obtain tickets from the digital platform. 

He explained that the Station Masters union was calling for five year promotions for the station masters, however the railway authority have prepared the scheme of recruitment to carry out the promotions and are due to send the it to the public services commission for approval.

However within scheme of recruitment there are two clauses which affect both station masters and railway guard. Therefore the railway authorities had requested the two unions to come to an understanding on the matter .

Several meetings were held on the matter within the past few days, and a discussion with the Station Masters union and Transport Ministry and Railway department officials were held today.

The General Secretary of the Station Masters Union, Sanjaya Jayasundara said that they took the union action of withdrawing from issuing train tickets from 4.30 pm came as a result of the talks held between the transport Minister’s private secretary and executive officials of the railway department failing.

This was the first trade union action after Mr. Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected as president.