Hidden motive behind go-slow campaign - Ports Minister

Channa Kasturisinghe and Rasika Somaratne

COLOMBO: Ports and Aviation and Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday called on the Sri Lanka Ports Authority trade unions to end their go-slow campaign and bring Colombo Port operations back to normal.

The Minister blamed a section of port workers for attempting to disrupt port operations due to hidden motives. "Their complaints about salary anomalies are baseless and they are earning high salaries compared to employees in other institutions," the Minister told the media yesterday. He said the SLPA employees were given a minimum salary increase of Rs. 2,500 in December 2004.

"With the Rs. 750 salary increase from January this year their minimum salary increase is Rs. 3,250. The SLPA has to spend about Rs.400 million for the salary increase that came into effect from January this year," Minister Samaraweera said.

He said the present Government increased the productivity and profitability of the SLPA since April 2004.

"In 2003 the Port recorded a loss of Rs. 2.1 billion and in 2003 the loss was Rs. 3 billion. We reversed this trend by ensuring efficient management. As a result the net profit of the Port increased to Rs. 10.07 billion. We cannot let some irresponsible trade unions retard this growth," the Minister said.

He said the three member committee comprising of SLPA Chairman Saliya Wickramasuriya, Secretary of the Labour Ministry Mahinda Madihahewa and the Secretary of the Ports and Aviation Ministry Tilak Collure are holding discussions with trade unions to solve the issue. "We are always ready to listen to the trade unions.

What is urgently needed is to put an end to this unreasonable union action and bring the port back to normal," the Minister said. He said due to the go slow campaign the Port's productivity has reduced considerably.

"We operated about 4,000 containers a day prior to this union action. Now it has come down to less than 1,500. This is a great loss to the SLPA." He said the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya affiliated to Sri Lanka Freedom's Party which has about 5000 members was not supporting this go-slow campaign.