Employees in education sector also recalled to work

The Secretary to the Ministry of Education has requested all provincial, zonal and divisional education authorities, principals, teachers and non-academic staff to follow the circular on recalling public sector employees to work from August 02.

On Friday (July 30), Secretary to President, P.B. Jayasundera announced that all state sector employees will be called back to work from Monday (August 02).

Accordingly, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Councils & Local Government J.J. Rathnasiri published a circular in this regard.

In addition, all circulars permitting work from home arrangements and limited number of staff members to be present at the workplace on a rotation basis, in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19, were also revoked by this new circular.

The decision was taken with the intention of restoring normalcy in the public service as majority of public servants have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

However, teachers across the island had withdrawn from conducting online lessons on July 12, demanding solutions for anomalies in salaries, ‘forced quarantining’ protesters, and several other issues.

The strike, joined by a total of 17 trade unions representing school principals and teachers including the Ceylon Independent Teachers’ Services Union (ITSU), has been going on for more than 20 days now.