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Minister firm

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

The Railway Joint Trade Unions Federation yesterday condemned the strike action launched by the Locomotive Operating Engineers Union (LOEU) as an unjustifiable wild cat strike at a press conference held at the newly established Ministry of Railways. The press conference was presided over by Railways Minister Felix Perera.

The representatives of the Unions stated that the three demands made by the LOEU directly affected the well-being of their profession.

The LOEU demands are that designation of the profession be changed to Railway Pilot and three increments be granted to rectify the existing salary anomalies and the basic recruiting qualifications to be elevated to the NDT (National Diploma in Technology) of the University of Moratuwa. The LOEU had also demanded that a separate service be set up for them.

Meanwhile, Minister Perera appealed to the LOEU to give up the strike and come back to work. "We have only cancelled leave under emergency regulations as the railway is an essential service. We have no intention of abusing the regulations to suppress the employees. I welcome strikers back to work. Problems could be solved amicably without resorting to strike action.

However, I have taken a firm decision not to concede demands made by the LOEU as it would become a bad precedent", he said.

The Minister also said that the LOEU could not decide on the recruiting criteria and the minimum qualification had been reduced to O/L.

Fifty percent of the locomotive drivers will be recruited from railway employees' children and the rest from outside and they will be given a three and half year training. He further said that the railway was the most efficient mode of transport and currently six per cent of passenger transport was done by the railway which he hoped to increase to ten per cent. Minister Perera further said that Ministry was able to run trains at peak hours specially for office workers and schoolchildren. A total of forty trains were in operation in all lines.

The representatives of the trade unions and Secretary of the Ministry K. Haputhanthri, Chief Mechanical Engineer D. P. Wijesekara were also present on the occasion.

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