• All BOC branches shut down on Friday
• Promise to establish proper procedure in two weeks

By Skandha Gunasekara Following a complete closure of all Bank of Ceylon (BOC) branches islandwide, trade unions yesterday (7) halted their trade union action for the foreseeable future after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had agreed to address their main grievance, The Sunday Morning learnt. Treasurer of the Ceylon Bank Employees’ Union (CBEU) Kushan Wijayapala told The Sunday Morning that the unions had met with the President and expressed their concerns and that President Rajapaksa had pledged to resolve the matter within a period of two weeks. The issue arose after BOC General Manager /Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Senarath Bandara was removed and Sudath Gunasekara, who was previously the bank’s Senior Deputy General Manager – International, Treasury, and Investment, was appointed as Acting General Manager. “Our issue was not with the replacement of the General Manager of the bank, but the process in which he was removed and another put in his place,” Wijeyapala said. He said the President had promised to establish a proper mechanism of appointing and removing a general manager from BOC within a period of two weeks in addition to initiating an inquiry into the initial removal of the General Manager. Meanwhile, People’s Bank also saw a sudden change as CEO/General Manager Rasitha Gunawardana was replaced by Boniface Silva, who was previously the bank’s Senior Deputy General Manager – Banking Operations. Wijeyapala said the reason given for the removal of the General Managers was that they had failed to follow and implement policies of the incumbent Government on repeated occasions. Trade union action was initiated over the improper procedure, which resulted in all but one BOC branch being closed on Friday (6), causing serious inconvenience  to customers. Wijeyapala said that the meeting with the President had taken place on Thursday (5), and had finished in the late hours of that night. Therefore, the message to cancel the union action scheduled for the next day was not conveyed to the BOC employees, which had resulted in the islandwide trade union action on Friday.