Countrywide GMOA token strike tomorrow over ad hoc salary policy

Flaying the incumbent government for brazenly violating the national salaries and wages policy, the Government Medical Officers’ Association has announced that they would go on one-day countrywide token strike tomorrow (21) to protest what they alleged as unscrupulous government actions had compelled the entire public sector to launch a wave of strikes.

The GMOA in a statement announcing the trade union action accuses the government of following the destructive yahapalana policy as regards the ad-hoc increase of public sector salaries.

The statement says that the GMOA’s Central Committee has decided to launch a token trade union action on Monday, February 21, 2022 against the current government violating the National Salary Policy and provoking the entire public service to launch a wave of strikes through ill-thought cabinet papers.

The GMOA said the government should take direct responsibility for the current wave of strikes caused by the collapse of the national wage policy, and pointed out that a country can be destabilized by wages without a policy as well as a war.

Salary is a crucial factor in maintaining the right composition of human resources in any institution or country efficiently and more productively and thereby fulfilling the desired role, the GMOA pointed out issuing a statement.

When the salary is not optimal, the institution or service will not be able to obtain or retain the right human resources.

Only way to resolve this is to stop making decisions on salaries through cabinet papers and refer them to the National Salaries Commission, which is made up of technically capable people, and make decisions on salaries in the public service in line with the National Salaries Policy.

If the salary scale is set incorrectly, in addition to the breakdown of the productivity of that organization or service, the internal stability of the organization will also be lost.

Overall Salary consists of the basic salary, allowances and benefits and when determining its scale factors such as educational qualifications, training time, technical skills, decision-making responsibility and responsibility, occupational risk and complexity are considered.

Prior to 2003, the public service faced a wave of strikes due to the arbitrary introduction of the salary factor through ministry committees and the cabinet. Its worst-hit health service, was disrupted by a wave of strikes on185 days out of 365 days a year.

The GMOA realizing this stepped in to correct the salary factor and to improve the public service which had collapsed in the wake of the strikes through the following three proposals.

1. Eliminate cabinet papers, ministry committees and cabinet subcommittees that publish arbitrary salary scales without proper study.

2. Appoint a National Salaries and Remuneration Commission and obtain resource contributions from the leading scholars in the relevant subject.

3. Make all salary revisions only in accordance with a national salary policy.

In 2003, the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga established a National Salaries and Remuneration Commission and the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa preserved the National Salary Policy formulated by the Commission in 2006 and gave stability to the public service.

However, again during the period of good governance, the Cabinet began to violate the National Wage Policy by amending salaries in the judiciary and the legal field.

The government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is also further complicating this arbitrary process by disregarding any of the factors that should be taken into account in determining the aforesaid salary scale, through Cabinet and Ministry papers or personal commissions.

Today, the country is being destabilized by a wave of strikes due to the sensitive issue of wages, just as the country was destabilized during the war, the GMOA noted.