COLOMBO – A group of railway gatekeepers has appealed to the government to grant them permanent appointments and settle months of unpaid wages, saying they have spent 14 years working at hazardous railway crossings without adequate pay or employment benefits.
Representatives of the workers submitted a letter to the Presidential Secretariat on Monday (13), urging authorities to resolve long-standing employment issues affecting hundreds of railway gatekeepers.
Speaking to reporters after handing over the petition, Dhammika Munasinghe, Co-Secretary of the Joint Trade Union Federation of Government and Provincial Public Services, said the workers had been serving at dangerous railway crossings for more than a decade without being absorbed into the permanent public service.
“These employees have worked for 14 years under difficult and hazardous conditions but have still not received permanent appointments,” Munasinghe said.
He said the workers receive only a basic salary without any additional allowances. When the scheme was first introduced, gatekeepers were paid just Rs 500 for an eight-hour shift, although the current government later increased the payment following repeated appeals by trade unions.
Munasinghe also alleged that the workers have not received any salary payments for the past seven months, following the suspension of railway services after the impact of Cyclone Ditwah earlier this year.
“Despite discussions in Parliament on regularizing temporary and contract employees, no concrete plan has been introduced to make these railway gatekeepers permanent, even after 14 years of service,” he said.
He further claimed that although Transport Minister Bimal Ratnayake had stated in Parliament that the workers were not facing any major difficulties, they continue to experience significant hardships, including the absence of a fixed monthly salary payment date.
The union called on the government to immediately settle the outstanding wages, regularise the employment of railway gatekeepers and address their longstanding grievances.
-ENCL
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