The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) unions yesterday decided to abandon the continuous Trade Union action scheduled from Tuesday (10) after they were given an assurance by the Government that the CEB will not be privatised.
Power and Energy Minister Susil Premjayantha, Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama and Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Power Energy MInistry Secretary P. Virahandi and thirty trade union leaders participated in the discussions at Temple Trees prisided over by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
After four hours of discussion they reached a consensus. After agreeing to the final terms Union leaders urged the Government members to give a written undertaking.
Thereafter, Finance Minister Amunugama, Power and Energy Minister Premjayantha and Secretary of the Power and Energy Ministry P. Virahendi signed a document, which contained two assurances:
Cabinet paper submitted on 04/05/2005 to restructure the CEB will not be supported at the next Cabinet eeting scheduled for Wednesday May 11.
l To draft a new Reform Bill with the discussion of Unions after studying the Electricity Reform Act No 28, 2002 and CEB Act without changing the identity of the CEB but allowing provisions to establish companies and institutions under the CEB to improve the efficiency to obtain financial assistance from donor agencies.
Prime Minister Rajapaksa during the discussion reiterated that the government would not privatise state resources and would act in accordance with the wishes of all parties in the governing Alliance.
Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama thanked the Unions for their co-operation and said "all our doubts are cleared now. Certainly have no intention to privatise the CEB. The conflict between us turned to an understanding. We shall now work for low cost power generation."
CEB Unions Convener Ananda Nimalaratne speaking requested the Government members to keep to promises. He said that Unions never launched any Trade Union action to cripple the CEB or create inconvenience to the public. "Our union action was to protect the CEB going into the hands of the private mudalalis but we will support the Government for a restructuring process to improve efficiency", he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment