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Striking CEB MLT workers given another chance

by Rashomi Silva

The Ceylon Electricity Board has decided to give the striking Middle Level Technical (MLT) officers of the CEB another chance to report to work with the B.C Perera Committee Report which was due yesterday.

The high powered committee was appointed by the Cabinet to look into the grievances of the MLT officers. CEB chairman M. Zubair told the Daily News yesterday, that the Committee recommendations will be implemented immediately.

However, he warned that the CEB would be compelled to take stern action, if they the (MLT officers) continue with the strike despite the implementation of the recommendations.

Meanwhile, a senior MLT trade unionist said that they have reason to believe than an interim committee report forwarded last Thursday have made recommendations in their favour.

"We have given them an initial deadline on March 26th and warned them that the CEB will be compelled to take action against the strikers if they failed to report for duty as requested. But we decided to give them another chance.

However, he pointed out that the strike action did not have a significant effect on the day-to-day activities of the CEB, and said the CEB engineers country wide with the assistance of the junior technical staff attended to the technical faults promptly and restored the power supply.

Another top CEB official said the Minister of Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya and the CEB had repeatedly requested strikers to report to work considering the hardships their action may cause to the public.

The Minister has no intention of resorting to the strong arm tactics resorted to in the past. However, the CEB may consider the strikers to have vacated their posts if they did not report to work after the implementation of the recommendations, he said.

Meanwhile, the Engineers Union said that they opposed a seniority based promotion scheme for the MLT officers and claimed that placing the two categories on the same salary scale will create disciplinary problems.

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