The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers Union yesterday decided on trade union action in protest against a government decision to give a 22 per cent salary hike instead of 50 per cent.

The Union said that in the circumstances they have no option but to resort to trade union action as decided in one of the resolutions passed at their last Annual General Meeting.

They were confident that Power and Energy Minister W. D. J. Seneviratne, CEB Chairman E. A. S. K. Edirisinghe and General Manager Badra Jayaweera would treat the letter of notice of trade union action starting with a work to rule and non-cooperation with the Chairman CEB.

"We have nothing to do with any unions that are politically motivated. But we would fight for our demand as a trade union," a senior official told The Island yesterday.

The union said that as a responsible trade union, they understood the position of the country and stood by the Government when it was going through a crucial time, while other trade unions were agitating for a salary increase since the early part of 2009.

"We honoured the verbal declaration of the Government on the intended salary increase and supported the management to continue the service, even without any assurance in writing," the official said.

However, this stance was challenged when a salary increase was given to the banking sector. "Still, we supported the Government and the management and were ready to wait till next January 2010 for our 2009 due increase, he said.

"The CEB salary increase circular is issued with effect from November 2009, and there is no point of waiting for CEBEU till next year. With deep frustration we note that the ratio between lowest to highest salaries was effectively reduced when we asked for an improvement," he said.

The official said it was evident that their goodwill and support given to the Government and management was not honoured and probably misunderstood.

"Not only in this salary issue but in many other issues such as in the Electricity Act we observed the "no dialogue - we decide" attitude of the management towards us. We believe that has mainly led to the present chaos".

CEB Chairman E. A. S. K. Edirisinghe on Saturday, said that they were not in a position to give a 50 per cent hike due to the prevailing situation of the country.

However, they would take a decision on it during the first quarter of 2010.