Leave of all railway employees cancelled

Leave of all categories of staff in the Department of Railways has been cancelled with effect from today (March 14) until further notice, Bandula Gunawardene, the Minister of Transport and Highways said.

Accordingly, the General Manager of Railways W.A.D.S. Gunasinghe has notified all the heads of the department to submit a report of the employees who do not report to work tomorrow (March 15), after asking them to show cause, in order to maintain continuous and efficient railway service.

Railway service was declared an essential service in a special gazette notification issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe on February 27.

Earlier today, the Locomotive Operating Engineers’ Association of the Sri Lanka Railways announced that they will launch a token strike for 24 hours from midnight today.

Meanwhile, a collective of trade union actions are scheduled to take place this week, with unions from various sectors joining to protest against the recently imposed tax revisions and the incumbent government.

The trade union collective of professionals stated that the strike action initially planned to take place this week will continue as scheduled, as Monday’s meeting with the government was unfruitful.