The Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation yesterday strongly condemned the decision taken by Railway Station Masters to proceed with an immediate strike, disregarding the Ministerial-level solutions offered and ignoring opportunities for a constructive dialogue. A media release issued by the Ministry stated yesterday that such Trade Union (TU) action, especially amid ongoing efforts to resolve the internal inefficiencies, raises serious concerns regarding the underlying motives.
A token strike was launched by railway Station Masters from midnight on Friday (May 16), causing severe inconvenience to the public. “It appears that this may be an attempt to deliberately create disruption for the Government and the public. We emphasise that all measures will be taken to ensure the continuity of railway services and to minimise inconvenience to the public,” the release added.
The media release stated, “The strike is based on two primary demands – delays in implementing the five-yearly grade promotion system and delays in the appointment of new officers. At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation presented a Cabinet Paper, which received approval to recruit 909 new officers to fill the vacancies — including 106 Station Master positions. Although this approval was granted several months ago, the appointments have been delayed due to inefficiencies among some Departmental officers and internal issues within the sub-departments of the Department of Railways. These delays have persisted despite direct intervention by the Minister.
Several recommendations addressing the issue of five-yearly grade promotions were presented by the Director General and received by the Department on May 7. These recommendations are due to be forwarded to the Public Service Commission next week. This timeline has already been communicated to the Station Masters’ Union.
“Despite the fact that solutions have been provided at Ministry level, we express our dissatisfaction with the decision to proceed with immediate Trade Union action that inconveniences the public, especially when delays are due to inefficiencies within the Department and could be resolved through continued dialogue,” it added.
A spokesman for the Railway Department said the cancellation of all night mail train services scheduled for last night (May17) was due to the ongoing strike by the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Union.
Eight night mail train services had been cancelled, including the Colombo–Badulla, Batticaloa–Colombo, Trincomalee–Colombo, and Jaffna–Colombo journeys.
A token strike was launched by the Station Masters’ Union on Friday midnight (May 16) in response to several unresolved demands. As a result of the strike, the Railway Department was also compelled to cancel several train services yesterday morning ( May 17).
