(COLOMBO) – Health sector trade unions in Sri Lanka have threatened to cripple the essential services starting from April 02 to press home a demand for an allowance, a spokesman for the TU’s said on Friday.
The unions are protesting against what they claim is the government’s failure to grant their demand for the same Disturb, Attendance and Transport (DAT) allowance as provided to doctors.
President of the Joint Council of Professions Supplementary to Medicine, Ravi Kumudesh said that 72 health sector unions had resorted to trade union action on three earlier occasions since January this year after the Government increased the DAT from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 75,000 for doctors alone.
“We suspended our union action on March 18, because we wanted to provide more time for the new health minister and the health secretary to resolve the issue. We gave them 10 days, which ended on Thursday (March 18) and there has not been any attempt to resolve the issue,” he said.
Kumudesh said all health sector trade unions, except three, had decided to join the trade union action that will commence at 6.30 a.m. on April 02
