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Health strike to continue despite Keheliya’s assurance 

15 Feb 2022

 
  • Health Minister pledges to discuss salary hike at next cabinet meeting
  • Unions await cabinet decision on previously agreed OT payments/telephone allowance, before deciding on fate of strike today   
  BY Buddhika Samaraweera Despite Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella having promised that he would discuss the increase in the salaries of health sector workers based on their educational qualifications at the next Cabinet of Ministers’ meeting on 21 February, the non-medical health sector trade unions who engaged in an islandwide strike action will continue the same for the ninth day today (15), according to the College of Medical Laboratory Science (CMLS).  During a discussion conducted with the non-medical health sector trade unions yesterday (14), Rambukwella had promised to the said trade unions that he would discuss the increase in the salaries of health workers based on their educational qualifications at the cabinet meeting on 21 February. However, speaking to The Morning last evening, CMLS President Ravi Kumudesh said that they would continue with the strike action until an agreement regarding the health workers’ overtime (OT) payments and telephone allowance is approved by the Cabinet. According to Kumudesh, the said agreement had been made during the meeting between Rambukwella and the trade unions on 8 February.  “During a meeting on 8 February, an agreement was reached with regard to our overtime payments and telephone allowance. However, in order for that to be implemented, the President, the Finance Minister, and the Cabinet should intervene. Therefore, until they approve that, we will continue the strike,” he added.  Kumudesh also said that a general assembly of the relevant trade unions is scheduled to be held today to discuss the future course of action. He further said that if the Cabinet, which was to meet last evening, would provide them with a solution regarding the issue of OT payments and the telephone allowance, they would suspend the strike today. Several non-medical health sector trade unions – including those of the nursing and paramedical services, public health inspectors, and medical laboratory technologists, who have been engaged in a continuous strike since 6 February – staged a massive protest in Colombo yesterday. They gathered near the Colombo Fort Railway Station and then marched to the Presidential Secretariat in Galle Face. Thereafter, a discussion was held between several trade union leaders and Rambukwella. When the discussion was being held, more than 1,000 trade union members staged a protest at the demonstration site near Galle Face Green. Speaking to the media after the said discussion, the trade union representatives said that Rambukwella had agreed to discuss the increase in the salaries of health workers on the basis of their educational qualifications at the cabinet meeting.  “The Government tried to suppress the trade unions through various means, but all the trade unions showed the Government that they could not repress us like that. Even yesterday, Rambukwella came for a discussion with us as he and the other authorities came to know that they have no choice but to negotiate,” they claimed. A total of 18 non-medical health sector trade unions launched a strike last week at hospitals islandwide, demanding that the Government provide speedy solutions to their issues including salary and promotion-related problems. In addition, they had also organised protests in several districts in recent days. However, following the Colombo District Court issuing two enjoining orders against the Government Nursing Officers’ Association (GNOA) and its President Saman Rathnapriya calling for the immediate suspension of their strike, the GNOA had decided to call off the strike, while the 17 other trade unions continued to engage in the strike. Meanwhile, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared the public health service and the supply of electricity as essential services on 11 February, after a series of power outages and protests by health workers. In an extraordinary gazette notification issued in this regard, the President said: “The declaration was being made considering the services provided by any public institution that is engaged in the electricity supply and the health services as essential to the life of the community and are likely to be impeded or interrupted.” Despite the declaration of the public health service as an essential service, the strike action launched by the trade unions, which was launched at hospitals islandwide as part of a series of strikes launched by the non-medical health sector trade unions in the recent past, continued for the eighth day yesterday. Earlier, the trade unions engaged in the strike had a discussion with Rambukwella on 8 February, but the same had ended without reaching an agreement. Following the failed discussion, the trade unions announced that they had decided to continue with the strike action they initiated.


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