Sri Lankan health workers' strike enters tenth day

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 September 2003, 20:28 GMT]
The Health Sector Trade Union Alliance (HSTUA)'s strike entered tenth day Friday as its spokesman, Ravi Kumudesh, announced that the alliance has totally rejected health ministry stand on the question of recruiting new casual and temporary workers to the health service, sources said.

Earlier, a section of the Colombo media reported that the HSTUA had decided to withdraw the strike with effect from Friday following an agreement it reached with the cabinet sub-committee on the demands put forward by it, sources said.

The Alliance spokesman said, however, that the stand taken by the health ministry on the recruitment of casual and temporary workers could not be accepted.

Health ministry's decision to retain the services of the newly recruited casual and temporary workers after the strike was contrary to the agreement reached between the alliance and cabinet subcommittee, he said.

The Alliance has decided to continue the strike and a protest march and a rally will be held in Colombo on Monday in support of the strike, Mr. Kumudesh said.

Health ministry's additional secretary, Dr.Nihal Jeyatialaka, said that the cabinet subcommittee had agreed to all the demands submitted by the alliance at Thursday discussion.

Dr.Gunatilake admitted that the problem regarding the recruitment of new casual and temporary workers remained unsolved. He added that the Health Minister had agreed to consider this problem, sources said.