Commuters accuse unions of ‘playing God’:
There were scenes of chaos when thousands of railway commuters turned their ire on Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) staff after railway unions launched a lightning strike at 3pm last Wednesday (8), leaving passengers stranded on their way home from work.
Pawns between a war waged by the Railway trade unions and the Ministry of Finance, hundreds of thousands of passengers were stranded in and around Colombo, as unions resorted to strike action against a temporary stay order given at the last Cabinet meeting on rectifying a salary anomaly within the different grades of the railway employees. The trade union collective still on strike, in the middle of the A/L examination season, include Station Masters, Engine Drivers, Train Controllers and Train Guards. With the lightning strike launched last Wednesday, these railway workers have brought rail transport to a virtual standstill. Train workers struck work in December 2017 as well, badly affecting services in the middle of the GCE O/L examinations. According to the Railway Department website, 386 passenger trains ply throughout the country carrying nearly 350,000 passengers per day.
The strike was “cruel and inhumane,” charged E.M.H.M. Ekanayake from Kegalle whose daughter was sitting the current A/L examination. Her tired face peered out of a window in a crowded corner of the only train going to Kandy last Thursday (9). “Without money in hand I had no other way to travel. I came to the Station at 4.30 p.m. and got stranded. No bus could be found even at 11.00 p.m.. Even if it had come at that time I couldn’t have gone as my house is eight miles off the Kegalle Station. So, I spent the night sleeping in one of the trains,” she explained. Worst of all, Ekanayake was heartsick about the situation at home. “I needed to make sure my daughter had got home safe,” she explained.
The sudden strike action, was to jolt the Government into action, claimed, Indika Dodangoda ,Secretary Locomotive Operating Engineers’ Union (LOEU). “When it is sudden everyone feels it. Unless something of that nature happens, the Government won’t take action.”
Wearing black bands or sending letters won’t work,” he said, admitting that they are willing to end the strike the moment the unions get an acceptable response. “We will continue the strike until an agreement is reached,” asserted Dodangoda.
But commuters are well aware of the salary perks the railway unions are agitating for and it adds to their resentment. Jayasiri Waththewa, a daily commuter from Dodangoda off Kalutara who had been using the train service for decades charged that the arbitrary action by the railway unions was entirely for personal gain.
“Most of those who have joined the strike are at salary scales where with perks they get hundreds of thousands monthly. Why don’t they think of the rest of the people in the country? They could get such high salaries because we contribute to that by commuting in the trains,” Waththewa asserted.
According to the Ministry of Transport data, engine drivers, guards, station masters and train controllers agitating to rectify salary anomalies currently receive a basic of Rs. 44,600. Their monthly gross salary is around Rs. 250,000, which is only equal to that of the doctors and the executive judiciary officials such as the Attorney General. Though the strikers agitate for their basic salary to be increased to Rs. 56,205, doing so would create a huge anomaly in the salary structure of government servants, it stated.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer on Thursday, General Manager Railways (GMR), S. Mahanama Abeywickrama, condemned the unannounced trade union action as an “irresponsible act to make the Railways Department lose commuter trust and prestige.”
The General Manager said he was unaware of the Cabinet stay order. The Department had deployed 10 trains, using District Inspectors, to cover all the routes twice a day during the morning and evening rush hours, he noted. Eight trains, were seen plying from the Fort Railway Station, to Chilaw, Kandy, Rambukkana, Mahawa, Matara, Galle and Avissawella on Thursday evening.
The Ministry of Transport operated an extra number of buses and arranged for army buses to ply long distance enabling stranded commuters reach home free of charge. The Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) called their employees to work cancelling leave and deployed all roadworthy buses on the roads. Permission was granted for private bus owners to operate buses even without permits, for the duration of the train strike.
Meanwhile, Deputy Transport Minister Ashok Abeysinghe condemned the sudden strike action. He explained that the temporary stay order of the Cabinet Paper was only for two months until the Salary Commission reviews the salary hike of 1.4 million public servants. “Other government sector employees had discussions with the Ministry of Finance regarding the salary increase of the railway employees. Their unions would resort to strike action if we raise the salaries of the railways employees, even if we treat them as a closed service,” he said. Though the railway trade unions were informed and were aware of the situation, they resorted to strike action, noted the Deputy Minister.
The salary scheme is only for the lower grades of the railway service, claimed the LOEU Secretary, Dodangoda. “A salary review in 2006 created this problem of the lower grades getting a bigger salary than the higher grades. We have been informing all the governments since then and were resorting to strong action from time to time in order to rectify it. What has happened now is that people won’t apply for promotions because after promotion the salary is reduced. It is also affecting the scheme of recruitment,” he explained. A no promotion situation had left certain sections of the railways bottom heavy, preventing new recruitment and progress, he noted.
In their recent demands to rectify these anomalies, the trade unionists first resorted to strike action bringing the country to a standstill last December as the O/L examination was going on. After seven days of strike action, a four member Cabinet Sub-Committee was appointed to review the issue. The Committee headed by Dr. Sarath Amunugama recommended the rectification of the salary anomalies treating the Railway Department as a closed service.
“The Cabinet papers in this regard were approved three months ago in May. Since then, we have been awaiting the rectification of our salary anomalies.
The proposals were with the GMR, Secretary, Minister, the Sub Committee and then it had been tabled in the Cabinet and now the Finance Minister has got involved in this.
This is a different subject altogether,” said Janaka Fernando, President of the Station Masters’ Union (SMU). About 2,000 staffers including over a 1,000 Station Masters, 600 train guards and 300 engine drivers are involved in strike action he explained. Though Wednesday’s trade union action was to be a token strike, the unexpected commuter response in taking an engine driver hostage and the unresponsive stance by the Government had turned it into a full-scale strike action, Fernando noted.
“Though we were called for a discussion Wednesday evening at that time we could not attend it due to commuter action. We had to request (police) protection. We were not called for discussions, if we get an opportunity we would take it up.
We understand the difficulty of the commuters and don’t want to drag strike action unnecessarily,” commented Fernando, President of SMU.
The Finance Minister wanted the unions to call off the strike before discussions, said Railways General Manager Abeywickrama, as they did not agree, the officials met at the Ministry for discussions. “End the strike before we sit down for discussions,” Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera told the unions through a recent tweet.
Angry commuters are threatening to boycott the train services to protest what they call an unethical strike. “Let’s not say anything against the trade unionists or the Government.
It is time for commuters to take action now. Let’s go on strike action boycotting trains,” commented a commuter at the Fort Railway station who refused to be named. Wednesday evening infuriated commuters staged a protest in front of the Fort Railway Station blocking the roadways, beating a trade unionist and taking an Engine Driver hostage.
Thursday and Friday evening saw many passengers stranded for two days returning home using the skeleton train service. The low fares and short travel times propels many a daily commuter to use the train service.