Aug 16, Colombo: The trade union of Sri Lanka power authority Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has called off their week-long work strike following discussions held today with authorities.

Deputy Chairman of the CEB Anura Wijepala said the CEB union decided to end the strike launched on August 10 following the discussions held today between the trade unions and officials of the Labor Department and CEB.

Executive Committee member of the CEB Joint Trade Union Alliance, Ranjan Jayalal has also confirmed to the local media the decision to end their union action.

The CEB Wednesday issued a warning to the employees who were on strike ordering them to report to duty by 12 noon on Friday August 17th.

The power authority said that the alternative methods would be used to obtain the services of the workers who do not report to duty by that time and called for skilled field officials of the CEB who retired after 2008 from service to report to the closest Regional Electrical Engineers' Office.

The authority said it would recruit 5,000 people on a temporary basis to replace striking employees.

The non-executive employees of the CEB started the strike demanding an additional salary increase which was granted to the CEB engineers. CEB management has granted a 15% salary increase only to the executives in addition to the 25% salary increase granted to all the CEB employees at the beginning of the year.