Railway, Health & Education Services to be Made Closed Services

In a bid to resolve continuous contentious salary issues in the Railways, Health and Education sectors, the Government has decided to make all three sectors closed services.

Co-Cabinet Spokesman, Minister of Health, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said , successful discussions with railway unions led to the suspension of their seven-day strike. He noted that at present the Government was not in a position to increase salaries of one particular sector in a Ministry belonging to a particular salary scale, without doing so for other sectors. But under the closed services agreement, the Government was contemplating to even give higher salaries than what railway workers expected.

As far as the railway strike was concerned, the issue was technical and this dates back to the decision to reduce salary scales of the State Sector from 132 to 32 in 2006. This has lead to serious recurrent issues as it was impossible to encompass 1.5 million State Sector employees into 32 salary scales, Dr. Senaratne said. However, by making a sector a Closed Service, the Government could remove that particular service from the combined services, where a person is recruited not to a post but to a Service, thereby allowing the Government to increase the salaries of a particular service. Railway unions agreed that 75% of their issues will be solved by making the railway service a Closed Service.I have also spoken to Health Ministry unions and they are also happy, he said.

Dr. Senaratne further said, the Ministerial committee appointed to look into the railway strike, led by Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama will present a Cabinet Paper on 19 December requesting permission for the Railway, Health and Education services to be converted as closed services, Dr,Senaratne concluded.