January 18, Colombo (LNW): More than two thousand employees who opted into the Ceylon Electricity Board’s Voluntary Retirement Scheme have appealed directly to the President, seeking urgent action to resolve what they describe as a prolonged and damaging delay in the board’s restructuring process.
In a letter sent on behalf of around 2,200 applicants, the employees said they had committed to voluntary retirement within an agreed period and had organised their financial and personal futures on that basis.
However, continuing delays in implementing the restructuring have left them in limbo, unable either to exit the organisation or move ahead with their post-retirement plans.
The group pointed out that the absence of a formally declared date for the dissolution of the existing CEB structure has effectively frozen the process. As a result, many staff members who expected to have already transitioned out of employment remain tied to the board, facing uncertainty over income, investments and family commitments.
According to the employees, the administrative groundwork required to announce the so-called Appointed Date has already been completed. They noted that this position was publicly affirmed by the Director General of the Electricity Reform Secretariat, Engineer Pubudu Niroshan Hedigallage, at the time he tendered his resignation. The employees stressed that only one procedural step remains: the issuance of a Gazette notification by the Minister of Energy.
To bring clarity and end months of uncertainty, the employees have called for February 01, 2026, a date previously communicated to them, to be formally declared without further delay.
They warned that continued inaction could undermine confidence in the restructuring process and place unnecessary strain on workers who had agreed in good faith to the voluntary exit scheme.
