The employees of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) are preparing to take sick leave and launch trade union action in protest against the government’s decision to split the CEB into several companies, trade union leaders announced yesterday (14).
The ongoing “work-to-rule” campaign, which began a week ago in opposition to the government’s decision, is still being carried out by CEB employees.
Executive council members representing 25 trade unions held a separate meeting yesterday (14) afternoon to discuss future trade union action. The decisions made at this meeting were submitted to the Joint Trade Union Congress, whose executive committee was scheduled to meet later in the evening to take a final decision.
Although employees have yet to receive a satisfactory response to their work-to-rule campaign, discussions at the executive council meeting proposed that CEB employees should begin taking sick leave starting the day after tomorrow (17).
In the meantime, the trade unions have decided to limit employee participation in updating information on power outages from 4:15 p.m. today (15) and withdraw from certain additional duties. Approximately 20,000 CEB employees — including engineers, technicians, and workers in various divisions — have joined the trade union action.
However, essential services such as electricity supply to hospitals across the island continue without interruption.
Meanwhile, the Lanka Electricity Employees’ Union, which is affiliated with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), has chosen not to participate in the trade union action. At a media briefing held in Colombo, the union’s former chairman and current Mayor of Kaduwela Municipal Council, Ranjan Jayalal, stated that the work of the CEB is “not relevant to him.”
