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Tuesday, 14 August 2012

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If strike continues:

CEB to recruit 5,000 new hands

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will recruit a temporary work force not exceeding 5,000 if the regular hands continue to keep away from work, disrupting the electricity supply, deputy chairman Anura Wijepala said.

He said the CEB is confident that it could provide electricity without interruption despite the trade union action and would also guarantee a continuous power supply.

Wijepala said the staff, including executive grade officers, did not join the strike and was engaged in duties at power plants and other important locations since last Friday to guarantee a smooth power supply. He made these observation at a press conference at the Power and Energy Ministry yesterday.

The deputy chairman said they also expect to recruit workers from among retired CEB employees.

He said they always rely on skilled labour of the CEB employees, yet the electricity supply could not be allowed to collapse due to trade union action. Wijepala said a few trade unions initiated the strike requesting to withdraw a warning letter for not attending to duties of employees who were on shift basis, though the trade unions accepted the CEB’s pledge to rectify the salary anomalies of the non executive staff this November. Wijepala said the employees were working hard to provide electricity without difficulty to people including Advanced Level students.

“This is a crucial time as the catchment areas did not experience three consecutive monsoonal rains and at a time when the Norochcholai Power Plant is closed for repairs,” he said. He said the CEB would not however recall the warning letter although the board members had to leave as it would become a negative precedent that would finally plunge the CEB into chaos.

Wijepala said at certain significant points, the CEB has employed workers on shift basis.

He said in such instances, a worker cannot leave until the arrival of his replacement since it could cause an irreparable loss to the CEB . CEB General Manager Nihal Wickramasooriya said a special three member committee is working to formalise a mechanism to rectify the salary anomaly of non - executive staff members of the CEB. “The workers have been promised that their issue will be attended to in November. However they staged a one day token strike on June 4.”

He said though generally the employees on shift basis do not resort to to strikes, this time they too joined the strike. “So they were sent warning letters.” Wickramasooriya said this time, a few trade unions staged the strike with 12 demands including to recall the warning letter and expedite providing solutions for salary anomalies. He said warning letters were sent with prior notice.

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