BIA strike: Deputy Minister levels charges

Saturday, 8 November 2014 00:26 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

With the recent strike action at the Bandaranaike International Airport  (BIA) organised by the SLFP trade unions, Deputy Minister of Fisheries Sarath Kumara Gunaratne yesterday requested the Government to take necessary action to avoid a repeat of such incidents and to terminate possibilities of having delays at the national airports. The deputy minister, in his request, wanted Civil Aviation Minister Piyankara Jayaratne to treat all statutory boards coming under the latter’s purview equally to avoid any recurrence of uneasy situations such as the recent wildcat strike at BIA. “They are our party supporters. The minister should listen to them too to solve problems before things get ugly,” Deputy Minister Gunaratne said, participating in the committee stage debate on the Budget under the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. “These officials do not listen to their ministers and act in an arbitrary manner. If all employees were treated equally this matter would not have occurred and the Government would not have been embarrassed, as it affected a large number of foreigners too,” the deputy minister added.

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