Mar 17, Colombo: The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) in Sri Lanka will see a reduction in its staff and the CMC Commissioner is to introduce a new recruiting system for the Council.

The CMC is to reduce 3,476 positions from its original staff of 12,121.

CMC Commissioner Badrani Jayawardena has said that although there were 12,221 positions in the cadre, only 7,026 were filled and the rest had been left vacant. The new CMC cadre is reported to be 8,745.

Jayawardena has said the new move would indeed enable the Council administration to recruit more workers than the current numbers.

She has observed that the Council had spent two-and-half years to evaluate and revise the cadre system.

According to Jayawardena, the new system is expected to be error free.

However, CMC trade unions are unhappy with the new cadre system.

Convener of the CMC Federation of Trade Unions Kahadagama Mahindarathna told the media that the individual heads of the CMC have arrived at a conclusion without acknowledging the trade unions.