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Railway Station Masters withdraw from duties in protest

10 Oct 2021

  • Demand Railway Department to grant due promotions, conduct annual station classification 
By Buddhika Samaraweera Railway Station Masters have commenced islandwide trade union action to protest against several issues, including the Railway Department not granting promotions to Station Masters and failing to take the necessary steps to carry out annual classification of railway stations.  Speaking to The Morning, Sri Lanka Station Masters’ Union (SLSMU) General Secretary Kasun Chamara stated that they have withdrawn from duties pertaining to the preparation of monthly accounts of all railway stations and forwarding them to the Railway Department. “There are many issues with the promotions of Station Masters. For example, there are 60 vacancies in the Railway Department for the post of Chief Station Master. An interview was held in January 2021 to recruit Grade 1 Station Masters for those posts, but no recruitment has been made yet. Some of those who attended the interview have even retired now,” he said. In addition, Chamara said that all the Grade 2 Station Master posts in the Railway Department are currently vacant. Even though the current Grade 3 Station Masters should be promoted to Grade 2 in light of this, he claimed, there has been no preparation towards this. He further said the Railway Department was due to take action to classify islandwide Railway Stations in January this year, but no action has been taken in that regard. The process of granting promotions to Station Masters is also affected when Railway Stations are not classified properly, he charged. Claiming that the Ministry of Transport and the Railway Department have been informed of these issues on several occasions, Chamara said that the SLSMU has decided to launch trade union action, as no solution has been found. However, he said that they hope to implement the trade union action in a manner that would not cause inconvenience to commuters after the commencement of train services, which are currently suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When contacted by The Morning to inquire into this matter, Railway Department General Manager Dammika Jayasundara stated that he hopes to discuss these issues with the Station Masters at the departmental level within the week. Transport Minister Pavithra Devi Wanniarachchi was not available for comment on the matter.

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