In an open letter to the President, the General Secretary of Development Officer Service Association Chandana Sooriyarachchi states the spread of covid-19 among those working in public, private and estate sector organizations is accelerating. He states there is also the danger that the members of their families too have to face the risk of being infected through them. As such a special order should be issued to the heads of the public, private and estate sectors preventing employees from being called to work for a minimum of 14 days.
The letter states:
Hon. President,
We urge you to take immediate action to prevent large numbers of people working in the public, private and estate sectors from becoming infected with covid-19.
A large number of development officers, field officers and graduate trainees in the public and provincial public service have now become infected with covid-19 and are becoming increasingly infected daily.
A recent example of this is the significant number of field officers and development officers who went to homes for information on the covid-19 vaccination survey conducted under 13 Divisional Secretariats in the Colombo District from 02.08.2021 have now been exposed to the covid-19 virus. Although our association pointed out that this action taken on the orders of the Colombo District Secretary was not appropriate at the moment the survey was carried out by force.
The public and provincial public services were 100% open from 2021.08.02 at a time when the spread of the Covid-19 virus was accelerating. The circular was amended after various parties, including the unions, pointed out that the consequences of that decision could be devastating. Accordingly, although a minimum of 3 days per week was prescribed, some heads of institutions ignored it and called public officers including development officers, field officers, graduate trainees for duties.
Meanwhile, with effect from 11.08.2021, the Presidential Additional Secretary Administration and Operations suspended calling for duties of staff members by notifying the Heads of all Divisions of the Presidential Secretariat in writing. The decision could have been applied to employees in all sectors, public, private and estate as well. If so, we believe that the new victims claimed by the covid-19 virus would have been lessened. It was reported that due to the expansion of covid-19, several departments belonging to the public service would be closed from 16.08.2021. We like to point out that the spread of the covid-19 virus cannot be controlled and eradicated through such improper methods. It is now becoming clear that such improper practices are endangering the entire working population.
It is clear from the information we have received that there is an outbreak of the disease among a large number of government agencies in the Western Province and among those who have recently reported for employment in private sector institutions. It is learned that covid-19 is spreading rapidly among public and private institutions as well as the plantation sector in other parts of the country and districts.
We also point out that if the goal of keeping the country open is to maintain the economy, it will be difficult to achieve those desired goals as the people in the country’s public, private and plantation sectors continue to be infected with covid-19.
In view of the above, we make the following request to the Government and the responsible authorities.
Request: As the spread of covid-19 among those working in public, private and estate sector organizations is accelerating, their family members may also be at risk through them and urgent attention should be paid to all public, private and estate sectors. We request that a special order be issued to the heads of the public, private and estate sectors preventing employees from being called to work for a minimum of 14 days.
