The Sri Lanka Customs Trade Union Alliance says that the decision taken by the customs officers to only carry out the activities related to their respective duties has been temporarily suspended.

The customs officers had resorted to a union action of carrying out only the work related to their official duties, in protest against the alleged false accusations levelled against them by container truck owners and drivers during an observation visit by Minister Vijitha Herath to the Colombo Port on November 07.

This had resulted in a serious delay in the clearing of the containers at the port.

However, the President of the Customs Trade Union Alliance stated that the decision to carry out only duty-related activities was temporarily suspended considering that the container truck drivers and assistants would not be able to vote due to having to park their container trucks.

The President of the alliance Mr. Amila Sanjeeva said the following during a press conference this afternoon (13):

“We can see that there is a lot of container traffic in the clearing yards with this action. The country is in a special situation.”

“The General Election will be held tomorrow. The right to vote is everyone’s right. Therefore, until the end of the election, in order to allow the truck drivers and assistants to vote, we have decided to work under some restrictions by keeping the container trucks in the port premises in such a way that the roads will not be blocked.”

“We have not found an acceptable solution to these problems. Therefore, from next Monday, we will inform our members again to proceed according to the instructions we issued on November 12”.