The Island
The All Ceylon Health Services Union yesterday accused the government of using health workers in its election campaign.President of the ACHSU, Gamini Kumarasinghe told The Island that over 1,000 minor employees attached to government hospitals had been compelled to work for the ruling party.
Minor workers from the government hospitals in Colombo, Ragama, Badulla, Kandy, Peradeniya, Rathnapura, Kegalle, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura had been ordered to leave their work places and work in the government election campaign.
This situation had resulted in workers taking leave without prior notice. Kumarasinghe said that the situation had resulted in hospital authorities and patients being inconvenienced.
The country’s health sector was confronted with lot of problems due to the spread of several epidemics and could not afford losing its manpower at that critical juncture, he said.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry, contacted for comment said that it was the right of all public servants to support or work for any party or political organisation of their choice. They could avail themselves of leave and then campaign for political parties, because that was not illegal according to the laws of the country.
He said that some of the health workers who had received their jobs under the incumbent government or the minister were of the opinion that they must work for the UPFA by way of gratitude. None had ordered these employees to work in the UPFA campaigns but they had volunteered to do so.
The spokesman said that it was not fair for ACHSU leader Kumarasinghe to talk of health workers doing politics because Kumarasinghe himself was a fully-paid worker doing no work in a hospital or ministry but working as a full time member of the JVP.