The Executive Committee of the Telecommunication Engineers’ Union has decided to launch this trade union action of refraining from carrying out official duties after duty hours, official communications after duty hours, carrying out the duties which were not defined clearly in job description and the areas where policies and procedures are not clear with immediate effect.

In a letter to the President, Prime Minister and Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure facilities, Sri Telecom Active Trade Union Collective says that the company is moving towards an abyss and the top management has not taken any action to tackle the situation.

The CEO is drawing a salary of over Rs. 4 million per month inflicting a double blow for the SLT, they charged. They noted that the top management headed by the Group Chief Executive Officer Dileepa Wijesundera is causing a massive damage and loss to Sri Lanka Telecom by lowering the quality of the firm, and engaging untrained employees in skilled duties through out sourcing.

Even after investing around Rs.50 billion during the past three years in capacity building, introducing new technologies, improving the automation of internal processes etc. Sri Lanka Telecoms revenue has come down by 48 percent owing to the top management bungling, employees of the company alleged.

The management has increased the transport allowance of only 264 A4 and A3 grade officers by Rs.50, 000 and Rs.70.000 respectively ignoring protests of trade unions, they alleged.

Action has been taken to reduce the working hours of executive officers only by 45 minutes thereby affecting the productivity of the company, they revealed.