President Signed the Gazette Notification Declaring Railways as an Essential Service

Secretary to the President Austin Fernando said, that President Maithripala Sirisena signed the Gazette notification declaring railways as an essential service.  The decision to declare railways an essential service comes as train services came to a standstill across the country as a resulted of a strike action launched by railway trade unions.

The strike launched by 12 trade unions of the Department of Railways continues as discussions with government officials last  evening yielded little to no results.

Secretary of the Locomotive Engineering Operators’ Union Indika Dodangoda stated that the trade unions will continue their strike action as the demands made to rectify the salary anomalies within the Railway Department was not met along with several others.

Further he stated that the issues related to the hiring of assistants for the department was resolved following discussions at the Presidential Secretariat.