Srilanka CEB Employees on Sick Leave Today

As employees of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) launch a token strike by calling in ‘sick’ today, the Ministry of Power and Energy yesterday assured that the people would not suffer a power cut.

The National Electricity Workers’ Association (NEWA) had threatened to go on a 24 hour strike which would cause serious power outages in the country today in protest of a recent salary increase given to CEB engineers.

They allege that the engineers’ salaries were increased by 70-120 percent with effect from 1 January 2015 with no corresponding increase to other workers at the CEB. The strike is supported by the unions of electrical superintendents, executives, technological service, accountants, clerks, drivers, security and minor employees.