Ravi to seek fresh Cabinet approval for quashed CEB salary scale

• Court decision in March deemed 2014 circular creating special salary scales for engineers illegal 
• 85% of salaries being paid as allowances, paper notes 
• Paper seeks to maintain same pay scales until next collective agreement signing in 2021
• AG advises Ministry to seek Cabinet approval to pay salaries till 2021
  
   

A paper seeking Cabinet sanction to pay Ceylon Electricity Board engineers’ salaries under the special salary scale which was deemed illegal by the Court of Appeal in March is set to be presented at this week’s meeting, Daily FT learns.

Power, Renewable Energy and Business Development Minister Ravi Karunanayake is set to present a Cabinet Paper tomorrow, seeking the approval of the Cabinet to authorise the Ministry and the CEB to continue the payment of salaries and other related payments based on the salary scales that were in place in March 2019, to “maintain the status quo until the judgement can be fully complied with,” which he deems to be before 2021, when the next collective agreement is to be signed. 

The Court of Appeal issued a Writ of Certiorari quashing the 2014 circular creating the “Unified Engineering Service” with a special salary scale known as “E Salary Scale” for the Engineers and Engineering Assistants in the CEB, following an application made by Lanka Viduli Podu Sevaka Sangamaya. The Court deemed it “bad―incurably bad.  Illegal―ex facie illegal“, and was made “Null and void―null and void ab initio.”

However, the new Cabinet Paper, a copy of which the Daily FT has seen, also notes that the Attorney General has advised that there was no legal impediment for the Cabinet of Ministers to authorise the payment of salaries to the employees of CEB as per the salary scales outlined in the Unified Engineering Services until it is rectified. The AG’s Department said that a Cabinet Paper should be submitted seeking approval for payment of salaries until January 2021, when the new collective agreement is to be signed, until the judgement given on the 2014 circular creating the UES can be complied with in full. 

Despite the decision by the Court of Appeal, the CEB has already paid 85% of the individual salaries as a temporary allowance in April and May. However, the Cabinet Paper highlights that this has given rise to many legal issues in relation to recruitment, promotions, payment of pensions, loans, and other salary-related issues which are paid on a monthly salary. The paper highlights these issues as a reason to pay the same salaries as per the UES scales before the court decision was given. 

In the Court decision, an argument made by the CEB on the administrative inconvenience due to quashing the 2014 circular setting up the UES was disregarded by the Judge, noting that when the decision is illegal, the Court cannot turn a blind eye on the basis that making it right would cause grave inconvenience to the ones who are already beneficiaries of the illegal decision.