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. |