Postal Employees’ Leave Cancelled Amid Planned Strike

COLOMBO (News 1st); All leave for postal employees has been cancelled after a group employees planned to go on strike from tomorrow.

According to Chinthaka Bandara, convener of the Joint Postal Trade Union Association, The Postal and Telecommunications Officers’ Association and the Joint Postal Trade Union Front cited 19 issues, including overtime payments and the use of fingerprint machines to record attendance, as reasons for the planned strike. 

Postal employees have also begun withdrawing from overtime services since this morning.

In response, Postmaster General P. Sathkumara issued a statement this afternoon calling the trade union action “very unfair.” 

He said that policies on overtime payments and attendance recording are government decisions, and noted that 90 percent of the department’s total costs are spent on salaries and overtime. 

The Postmaster General emphasized that the department cannot operate outside government rules, regulations, and audit instructions.