CEB RECRUITS GRADUATES
CEB may get 5,000 ex-employees to help out
Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will recruit a considerable number of graduates from the 45,000 already recruited for government service, to work in CEB offices from tomorrow.
Arrangements have also been made to recruit qualified personnel from those interviewed recently as Electrical Superintendents. They will take up duties from tomorrow, a CEB spokesman said. He said measures would be taken to supply electricity without interruption so as to
Arrangements have also been made to recruit qualified personnel as Electrical Superintendents
maintain day to day work in the country, if the strike by the some CEB trade unions continued.
He said technicians and apprentices attached to other state institutions would be seconded for service in the CEB.
Meanwhile In a tough response to the strike action by a section of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) employees, the management yesterday announced that it would be compelled to obtain the services of 5,000 former employees to continue an uninterrupted power supply if the employees did not call off their unjust strike and return to work.
When President Mahinda Rajapaksa met editors and heads of media institutions he said tough action would be taken if CEB employees resorted to trade union action at a time when the CEB was badly hit by an unprecedented drought and students were sitting the GCE A/L examination.
CEB Deputy Chairman Anura Wijepala told a news conference the CEB was keen to provide an uninterrupted power supply to the country even though some of its employees had resorted to an extremely unfair strike at a time the GCE A/L examination was being held and the severe drought had reduced hydro power generation to less than 25 per cent of the total hydropower requirement.
“If the striking employees do not report for duty in the next couple of days we will be compelled to obtain the services of retired CEB employees and others who are familiar with services provided by the CEB to fill the gap,” Mr. Wijepala said.
He said the CEB management had taken steps to resolve the employees’ salary anomalies, which were,among their main demands and had given an undertaking to do so by the first week of November.
Mr. Wijepala said the CEB management would not withdraw the warning letter issued to Switch Board Operators (SBO) for their acts of sabotage and irresponsibility by leaving their duty points to participate in the strike without making alternative arrangements or obtaining prior approval.
He said the SBOs were doing a vital
Tough action will be taken if CEB employees resort to trade union action at a time the CEB was hit by an unprecedented drought
duty by manning the distribution and transmission switch boards and they were not permitted to leave their duty points without handing the work to the officer in charge of the next shift.
“The SBOs perform a 24-hour job and on this occasion 10 SBOs had left their duty points without approval from the engineer in charge or without handing over their work to the next on line,” the deputy chairman said.
Mr. Wijepala said the CEB management had discontinued their services but after discussions and a compromise with trade unions only minimum disciplinary action had been taken with a warning not to resort to this kind of sabotage in future. “The trade unions have made the withdrawal of the letter as one of their main demands in addition to the resolution of salary anomalies. How are we to maintain discipline among a 16,500 workforce if we withdraw this letter? What is our position if the GM cannot issue a warning letter to an employee who has resorted to an act of indiscipline,” Mr. Wijepala asked.
CEB General Manager Nihal Wickramasuriya said the striking trade unions were adamant that salary anomalies be resolved immediately despite the management’s pledge to do so by the first week of November.
He said salary anomalies were created after executive grade officers were given a salary increase in April this year and other CEB employees were granted a 25 per cent salary increase in January. “Several rounds of talks were held between the CEB management and trade union representatives and a compromise was reached on several issues. The present strike is extremely unfair and unjust when one considers the drought, breakdown at the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant and the GCE A/L examination,” Mr. Wickramasuriya emphasized.