He will declare the stand on these demands made by the TUs during talks he had with them, said the office of the prime minister.

Following a discussion at 3.00 pm yesterday, the government, semi-government and private sector trade unions alliance decided to launch an island wide strike on December 15 as scheduled, as the meeting ended without success.

The TUs demanded that the state sector pension be not suspended, inclusion of the Rs. 10,000 allowance to the basic salary, a Rs. 2,500 pay hike for the private sector, withdrawal of proposals to curtail income of state banks, granting Agrahara insurance for pensions, permanency for manpower workers, suspension of an extension to 365 days from 180 days the duration for granting permanency for casual and replacement workers among others.

The finance minister and his officials had taken a negative approach with regard to these demands, said the TU alliance’s co-convener Saman Ratnapriya in a statement.

Strike from 14th midnight

Accordingly, bus and train services will come to a halt at 12.00 midnight on December 14, followed by health, postal, state private bank, technical and state management services and government press employees going on strike from 7.00 am or 8.00 am on the following day.

If that strike action fails to achieve the expected result, the statement said, a two-day strike will be carried out within the coming week.

Expressing regret over inconvenience to the public, it says the government should be held responsible for that.