Sri Lanka will gradually reduce the 26,000 approved cadre in the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) through Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) and by not filling retired cadre position unless it is necessary while restructuring CEB, Energy Minister Kanchana Wjesekera said.
Wijesekera in the past has said the CEB could be managed with only 5,000 cadres instead of the current approved 26,000.
“I still believe we can do with reducing the cadres by a large number,” Wjesekera told reporters at a media briefing in Colombo on Tuesday (16).
“This is why we have introduced the institutional restructuring. We have 12-month, 18-month, and 24-month time frame for institutional restructuring. We have to go with that time frame,” he said.
“We cannot oust 21,000 out of the 26,000 cadres because we only need 5,000. Out of the 21,000, some should leave with VRS and some others should leave through retirement. Annually 1,200 employees retire.”
The CEB trade unions have opposed the restructuring of CEB through breaking the entity to separate institutions and reduction of its employees.
Already, 4,000 cadres have retired and the government has not recruited anybody to fulfill the vacancies for the retired cadres.
However, the Minister said the government will not oust the cadres in an unjustifiable manner.
“We can’t just oust the current cadres. For some we have suggested VRS. For some when they retire, without filling their cadre positions, we will recruit only to areas where we the vacancies should be required to fulfill,” he said.
“That is our policy decision. In line with that only we have not fulfill any of the 4,000 vacancies that have arisen from retirement. We have recruited 20 engineers on contract basis to fulfill the requirement. But in future, we expect to do a complete revision of cadre only for essential positions.”
“In future we will not have the CEB, but many institutions (after restructuring). Those institutions will recruit to their own requirements without filling the vacancies arising from retirements.”