Committees say postal and SLAS officers' demands will cost billions

Sri Lanka Administrative Service officers and Postal Department unions are demanding increased allowances and salaries but two committees say the demands cannot be granted fully in view of the complications arising in other sectors.

Two separate committees are studying the demands of the postal unions which are continuing their strike and the demands of SLAS officers who have postponed their trade union action pending a response from the Government.

A committee member studying the SLAS officers' proposal said that they would be able to submit a solution within the next two weeks, but would not be able to fully grant the demands of the SLAS officers. He said they would need to compare it with other salary grades, before taking a final decision.

A study on the demand of the SLAS officers has shown that the Salaries and Cadres Committee had earlier approved the special allowance without taking into consideration the conflict with salaries of other sectors.

Officials said that if the allowance for the SLAS officers was granted the government would have to incur an additional Rs 1 billion annually while creating an anomaly in other sectors and costing the Government an additional Rs 8 billion.

Meanwhile, the postal unions's demands, if granted, also could create salary anomalies in other sectors such as nursing and paramedical services, a committee member said.

The committee studying the postal unions' demands is due to give a response within a week.