Govt. agrees to pay suspended salaries of govt. surveyors

The Attorney General has informed the Supreme Court that the government is prepared to pay the salaries of government surveyors, subject to conditions. The payment of relevant salaries is temporarily suspended due to the trade union action launched by the Government Surveyors’ Association.

Appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, Deputy Solicitor General Kanishka de Silva informed this to the court when a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by the government surveyors was taken up for hearing.

The petition was taken up before a three-member Supreme Court judge bench consisting of Justices Preethi Padman Surasena, Yasantha Kodagoda and Priyantha Fernando on Tuesday (03).

The petitioners had pointed out their fundamental rights have been violated through the government’s action to suspend their July and August salaries citing the trade union action launched against the assigning of the survey department’s projects to private surveyors.

However, the Deputy Solicitor General stated that the petitioning surveyors have refused to sign off on the government projects and that the government is ready to pay the suspended salaries if they agree to sign the relevant projects.

Appearing for the petitioning party, President’s Counsel Saliya Peiris mentioned that the petitioners are ready to sign the relevant projects, only if the government is ready to suspend the assigning of the survey department’s projects to private surveyors. He further requested the court for a date to confirm the facts related to this petition.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court judge bench ordered the petition to be recalled on October 13, for further consideration of the facts presented.