TU talks with PM fails:

Unions to strike on Tuesday

The Sri Lanka Government Combine Management Services Union yesterday announced that they will resort to their strike action on Tuesday after failed talks with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday evening.

The negotiations with the PM were on several proposals of the 2016 budget and involved over 50 trade unions. The talks were a failure with some of the unions citing displeasure over the outcome of the meeting, trade union sources told the Sunday Observer.

A spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Government Combine Management Services Union, who spoke to the Sunday Observer immediately after the discussion with the Prime Minister, said that the discussions ended without a conclusion.

“All 50 trade unions participated in the discussion with the Premier. Later the trade unions had discussions amongst themselves to decide on their plans,” the spokesman said.

A collective of trade unions of the public, semi-government, and private sector previously announced plans to launch an island-wide strike on Tuesday (Dec. 15) in protest over certain budget proposals.

Among the issues raised were: pension for the public sector, a Rs.10,000 allowance to be added to the basic salary, Agrahara insurance for pensioners, public sector salary raised by Rs. 2,000, not extending the work day to 9 hours and, to resolve the issues over the EPF and ETF.