SOE reforms: CEB unions threaten to halt repairs
SOE reforms: CEB unions threaten to halt repairs
Want demands met by 15 Sept.
Say Govt. must fulfil its promises Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) trade unions yesterday (6) warned that if their demands were not met by 15 September, essential services such as breakdown repairs could be suspended.
A group of CEB trade unions recently launched a work-to-rule campaign over ongoing disputes related to the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) restructuring process, which has been a long time coming.Currently, the unions say they are minimizing the impact on consumers, attending to breakdowns and other critical services, while restricting communications with higher management and skipping district coordination meetings and other official events.
CEB Engineers’ Union Executive Committee Member Dhanushka Parakramasinghe explained that the action stemmed from 16 demands, including objections to the alleged unlawful restructuring and calls for proper human resource policies.
He stressed that the unions were not seeking salary increases but were pressing for settlement of outstanding payments, including unpaid wage adjustments from two years ago and a medical bonus from 2020.Under the new Electricity Act enforced in August, the CEB was divided into four separate entities: the National System Operator Ltd., the National Transmission Network Service Provider Ltd., Electricity Distribution Lanka Ltd., and Electricity Generation Lanka Ltd. Employees were given the chance to transfer to these companies, but the unions argue that the move fails to guarantee career progression, wage stability, or benefits.
Parakramasinghe also noted that the legal prerequisites for transferring employees to the successor companies — such as formal establishment of boards, organisational structures, and defined roles — had not been fully satisfied.“The Government must fulfil the promises made to us,” he said, adding that while consumer services were being maintained for now, breakdown repairs may be halted if a solution was not reached before 15 September.
The work-to-rule action began at midnight on Thursday (4) and continues to affect interactions with management, while day-to-day operations are being carried out with minor delays.
