Suspended health trade union action to resume next week?
March 15, 2024 04:31 pm
The suspended health trade union action will be resumed from March 19 (Tuesday), says the Convenor of the Health Service Trade Unions Ravi Kumudesh.
Addressing a media briefing in Colombo, Kumudesh said the authorities failed to provide them with satisfactory solutions to the issues facing the health sector workers.
He urged the finance ministry to intervene without delay to address these issues.
The trade unions representing a wide range of health sector professionals – including radiology and laboratory technicians, pharmacists and drug compounders, midwives, dental surgeons, public health inspectors, and entomology officers – have been engaging in strikes time and time again over the past few months urging the government to provide them with an allowance similar to that of the DAT (Disturbance, Availability and Transport) allowance given to doctors.
The trade union actions stemmed from the Cabinet Ministers’ approval of a proposal tabled by President Ranil Wickremesinghe seeking to double the DAT allowance paid to government doctors, raising it from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 70,000.
The sporadic strikes were temporarily called off last month pending discussions with the Health Minister.
