A circular has been issued recalling government sector employees to resume work, the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration stated.

The decision to resume public services has been taken considering that 50 percent of the country’s population and the majority of public sector employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Further, it has also been considered that public institutions should be successfully operated to achieve the targets of the government.

“In the process of reopening the country, action should be taken to identify and call employees, who are vital for maintaining the essential services provided by government offices without disruption, for duty and, the authority to call employees for duty in that manner is vested in the Secretaries of Ministries/ Heads of Departments/ Heads of Institutions.”

The above provisions are not applicable to the staff officers who are entitled to official vehicles/ receiving transport allowances or provided with transport facilities by pool vehicles and, they are required to report for duty as usual, it said.

It says that when calling officers for duty to government institutions in the above manner, steps should be taken not to call pregnant officers, breastfeeding mothers and officers with particular illnesses. 

Such officers should be called for duty only in urgent situations and, in such cases, they should be provided with special facilities and allowed a special time to arrive at the workplace and depart.

“It is sufficient to maintain only a register of arrival and departure of officers reporting for duty,” the circular said.

Maintaining the Public Service under Normalcy (English) by Ada Derana on Scribd