Railway employees can no longer strike

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President Maithripala Sirisena has issued an extraordinary gazette notification imposing railway services an essential service.

The gazette notification has been issued with effect from yesterday(July 27) according to the Essential Public Service Act number 61 of 1979.

The gazette establishes that railway employees are entitled to carry out all the public transport services for passengers and goods efficiently and without delay including road maintenance and adequate security for both passengers and goods.

In addition, railway employees are entitled to issue train tickets and operate railway signals among other tasks when required to run railway services smoothly.

President made the railway services an essential service yesterday(July 27) following the trade union action initiated by a number of trade unions in the railway services.