By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera yesterday (27) said that the government trade union at the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) couldn’t under any circumstances demand a Christmas bonus.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the Finance Minister, should respond to the ultimatum issued by the General Secretary of the CEB Workers Union, National Trade Union Centre, Ranjan Jayalal Perera.

Wijesekera, a front runner for one of the two National List slots secured by the New Democratic Front (NDF), said that the government must not give in to such an unfair demand.

The CEB trade union leader has demanded that they be paid bonus by or before Dec. 10.

Perera, who is also a member of the NPP’s National Committee and had been on the NL, though overlooked, declared that they expected to resolve the issue at hand without any problem as their party was in power.

Responding to another query, Wijesekera said that the CEB workers hadn’t been paid bonus in 2022 and 2023 as the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government decided to introduce a performance-based system to pay bonus. Wijesekera received appointment as Power and Energy Minister in April 2022, at the height of the political turmoil that forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa out of office, three months later.

Regardless of the CEB union’s current status, the trade union leader couldn’t dictate terms to the management and the government, Wijesekera said, warning if the government succumbed to such tactics, trouble could erupt at other state enterprises.

Payment of bonus must be decided by the government, taking into consideration a range of other relevant factors, Wijesekera said.

A top Central Bank official said that though there was no responsibility on the part of the government to consult them on state-owned enterprises (SoEs) the CEB had been placed under the supervision of the Public Enterprises Department of the Finance Ministry. The official said that unilateral decisions couldn’t be taken.

The Public Enterprises Department and National Budget Department supervise SoEs.

Following the general election, President Dissanayake appointed Kumara Jayakody as the Energy Minister.

Ex-Minister Wijesekera said that those demanding a bonus should have first pushed the CEB to send its proposed tariff reduction proposal to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) soon after the presidential election. According to him, the proposal that had been prepared in the run up to the presidential election was held up on a directive issued by the Secretary to the Energy Ministry, Professor K.T.M. Udayanga Hemapala. Alleging that the NPP played politics with the issue, Wijesekera said as a result of the unnecessary delay caused by the Ministry, electricity consumers were deprived of the benefit of a drop in electricity tariffs in the last quarter of this year, Wijesekera said.

Referring to the ongoing exchange between the CEB and PUC over the delay in the implementation of the tariff revision, Wijesekera said that the General Secretary of the CEB Workers Union owed an explanation as to why the union didn’t take up this matter.

Wijesekera pointed out that the proposal that had been prepared by the CEB, after the presidential election, was rejected by the PUC and the latter granted two weeks extension for the submission of a fresh proposal.

The regulator has warned that failure on the part of the CEB to submit the revised tariff proposal by Dec. 06 would compel them to enforce the tariff revision clause under Bulk Supply Transaction Operational Guidelines.

Wijesekera alleged that the government trade union at the CEB was seeking to reverse the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government decision on bonus that should be largely based on a performance-based system.

The former Minister said that though the previous government managed to stabilize the economy, the country wasn’t out of the woods yet. Having accepted the Economic Transformation Bill, endorsed by the previous Parliament without a vote, the NPP couldn’t deviate from the IMF’s path, Wijesekera said.