Minister invites postal employees for discussions as strike cripples postal services

As the postal strike launched from midnight Monday continued, the Minister of Post and Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs Abdul Haleem asked striking postal employees to come for discussions to find solutions to their demands.

The Minister said the solutions to the demands of striking employees will be addressed only if they called off the strike and come for discussions.

Meanwhile, the Joint Postal Trade Unions Front said over a million mails piled up at the Central Mail Exchange within 12 hours due to the strike. The union vows to continue the strike till today.

The strikers’ demands include the revision of recruitment schemes, vacancies and promotions, resolving salary disparities, allowance revisions, relocation and restoration of the main Post Office and providing infrastructure facilities.

Minister Haleem, pointing out that a number of issues were resolved with the intervention of the Prime Minister when the new Government came into power, said he had discussions with the Prime Minister today and decided to summon the representatives of the Joint Postal Trade Union Front for talks.

Postal Service Joint Trade Union Front co-convener H. K. Kariyawasam said when a strike was launched in June, the Prime Minister’s secretary promised to look into the issues in six weeks but no solution was provided yet.

However, the Minister said certain concerns could not be addressed due to prevalent issues in the Postal Act.

Minister Haleem said a meeting between trade unions and ministry officials will be held this afternoon.

The union prepares to handover a memorandum on their demands to President Maithripala Sirisena tomorrow while a demonstration is also planned opposite the Central Mail Exchange.

Meanwhile, Post Master General Rohana Abeyratne yesterday said that leave of all postal workers island-wide has been cancelled till December 21 from Monday night to ensure that essential services are not crippled due to the trade union action by postal workers.

However, the Convener of the union said over 21,000 postal employees have withdrawn from work, crippling the postal services. (ColomboPage)