The strike which was carried out by the Locomotive Operating Engineers’ Union for four days ended yesterday (10) afternoon after a discussion with Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana and other Ministry officials.
At the discussion held at the Ministry of Transport and Highways with the Railway Trade Unions, Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana made a requested the unions to end the strike and report to work without inconveniencing the public.
The Locomotive Operating Engineers’ Union said that the request was accepted and based on the agreements made at the discussion, they will start train operations as usual from today (11).
Minister Dr. Gunawardhana during the discussion also said, “About two years ago, when I took over this Ministry, the public opinion of the country was that the railway service should be privatized as it could never be built. This was because people were affected by the strikes. That is why I always asked them to solve their problems through negotiation instead of going on strike. I brought a long-standing issue to the Cabinet and arranged to get Cabinet’s approval in March 2024 for giving promotions.
“The procedure for giving promotions to the train drivers is currently ongoing. Applications for promotion from Grade 3 to Grade 2 have been received from 75 out of 83 train drivers and so far, promotion letters have been issued for 70 of them. As the remaining 13 people have not met the required qualifications for promotion, they will be given promotions in the future according to the prescribed procedure.
“Those who have completed five years are being promoted after prescribed performance evaluation. Completing five years alone is not enough for that. They must pass efficiency test, departmental tests and Tamil language proficiency test.”
Additional Railway General Manager (Administration) Kusalani de Silva said that promotions will not be given to those who have disciplinary issues being investigated.
Secretary of the Ministry Engineer Ranjith Rubasinghe, Additional Secretary L.S. Tillakaratne, Acting Railways General Manager S. Mudalige, Railway Deputy General Managers and Railway Trade Union representatives were present.
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