Health workers’ strike suspended for 14 days

The health sector trade unions currently on strike have decided to temporarily call off their strike for 14 days from 8.00 a.m. tomorrow (February 16).

The island-wide strike was staged based on demands including transforming health professional services into closed services, increasing the special duty allowance to Rs. 10,000, eliminating parallel salary anomalies caused by eliminating only teacher salary anomalies, the establishment of a ‘Health Administration Service’ representing all health professionals and the delays in providing solutions to problems that have arisen for health professionals.

However, Ravi Kumudesh, President of Federation of Health Professionals said they hope for President’s intervention to resolve the issues. He said Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has been distorting discussed matters before the media, which dragged the issue for so long.

“We don’t hesitate to get on with the strike at any point, if the President fails to provide us with concrete solutions to our grievances,” he added.

The strike action launched by several health sector trade unions continued for the ninth day today (February 15).

The Government Nursing Officers’ Association alone had decided to withdraw from the strike following an enjoining order issued by the Colombo District Court.

However, the remaining 17 trade unions had opted to continue with the strike, which had severely disrupted services and activities at hospitals across the country.

The Government health workers resorted to an indefinite trade union action from 7.00 am on Monday (February 7) over the government’s failure to address seven of their demands.