Treasury broke, Govt. says ‘ No’ to increase in new year allowances

By Aisha Edris
The government has refused an increase in the new year allowance for state sector employees citing a lack of funds in the Treasury.

According to the General Secretary of Trade Union Confederation, Saman Rathnapriya the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs, Karu Jayasuriya had told the union that they had requested the treasury to approve the New Year allowance but they had not received any favourable response as the treasury did not have funds.

“The Minister informed us that the treasury did not have funds to increase our New Year allowance. But we are shocked that it was able to increase the fuel allowance for ministers, but does not have money to pay for state sector employees,” he said.

Ratnapriya affirmed that the Confederation is resorting to trade union action against the government since it had refused to listen to its employees’ grievances, “We are hoping to take trade union action against the government if it fails to listen to our demands,” he said.

He further said that they will be meeting on the 21st of this month to discuss about the future course of action, “We are also demanding that the government increases our salaries to meet the increasing cost of living. There are hundreds of thousands of state sector employees hoping to resort to trade union action if the government fails to listen to their demands,” Rathnapriya said.

The Trade Union Confederation, comprising 50 trade unions in the state sector has demanded that the government increases the New Year allowance from Rs.3000 to Rs 10 000, while the government had refused the demands since the treasury did not have sufficient funds.