• Reiterate warning to resign en masse over ‘intimidation’

In the wake of 10 Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) workers being suspended on Tuesday (23) over involvement in “obstructive” trade union protest actions, the CEB Workers’ Union (WU) claimed that over 20,000 workers were ready to tender their resignations if the Government and Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera continued the alleged intimidation of CEB employees who took part in trade union action.

CEB workers conducted a three-day protest early this month against the proposed new Electricity Bill which seeks to reform the CEB and the electricity sector. A total of over 70 CEB workers have since been suspended by the CEB administration, which was responded to by the unions with a warning of stepping down en masse.

In response to a social media post of Minister Wijesekera which stated that he had instructed the CEB management to accept the resignation of any CEB worker, CEBWU General Secretary Ranjan Jayalal told The Daily Morning that the CEB could not be run the way the Minister wished if the majority of workers resigned, since the recruitment of employees could not be completed within one or two months. He also said that therefore, such stubborn decisions and short-sighted statements of the Minister would only further disappoint CEB employees. 

“The Minister can recruit thousands of new employees, but they cannot perform the duties of the CEB, as unlike in other State-run institutions, every CEB worker is specialised in the respective duty that they are supposed to do. We also submitted a letter to the Presidential Secretariat in this regard,” he said. 

Jayalal further said that even if new employees were recruited, the duties could not be performed without proper training or experience. Therefore, he said that the Government could not disregard workers’ voices and intimidate them in this way. He emphasised that the CEB management should not take this for the simple reason that all operations of the CEB and the entire electricity sector would collapse if the workers made such a move. 

“On Tuesday, we came to know that another 10 CEB workers have been suspended because of their participation in the three-day protest. Earlier, the CEB management said that they would ask for excuses from workers who joined the protest and would take steps to suspend them if they failed to come up with excuses. According to our statistics, around 21,600 CEB workers have participated in the protest. They all are ready to resign if this kind of intimidation continues to happen,” he added.

However, in response to the CEBWU’s warning to the Government, claiming that more than 5,000 CEB workers are ready to tender their resignations, Minister Wijesekera posted on the social media platform X: “I have instructed the CEB management to accept resignations of any individual without hesitation and to recover all dues to the CEB. I have also instructed relevant officials to expedite work related to CEB reforms, cost reduction mechanisms, implementing identified power projects in the generation plan, expanding the digital payment platform and outsourcing payment collections, and disciplinary and legal steps against personnel who disrupted the services of the CEB.”

Several attempts made by The Daily Morning to contact Minister Wijesekera proved futile.