Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) was faced with a crisis this week as trade unions demanded that the company should reveal the validity of the company’s Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO’s) service contract.
The joint trade union front wrote a letter with signatures of 13 SLT trade union leaders to SLT Chairman Nimal Welgama urging him to reveal as to whether the CEO’s service contract is expired or not. They questioned the validity of decisions taken by the CEO if there is no service agreement.
A senior SLT official said that employees are frustrated as they have to obey the orders of a person whose service contract has already expired. This will affect the productivity of the company, he added.
When asked to clarify this issue, SLT CEO Greg Young, an Australian national, said that he cannot divulge details of his service agreement because it is confidential.
On the other hand he has signed a non disclosure agreement with his employer so that he is unable to comment, he said adding that his service will continue this year and next year as well. But Mr Young didn’t disclose the exact date of expiry.
To represent the interests of Malaysia’s Maxis, a major stake holder of SLT, the Sri Lankan Government was compelled to appoint a CEO nominated by Maxis and interviewed by SLT Board of Directors, trade union leaders alleged.
Mr. Young in a lengthy response to a question raised by the Business Times said that he was taking the best interest of the company in decision-making and some employees were not in favour of changes he has made and now making to meet the modern technology needs. SLT has to move forward with technical advances in the world and it cannot be lagging behind.
During this way forward some decisions including the retrenchment of staff had to be taken for the benefit of SLT, he added. According to job responsibilities of the SLT CEO, he should report to and be accountable to the Board of SLT. He has an overall responsibility for all operational and business activities of SLT.
SLT’s powerful Telecommunication Engineers Union in a communiqué said that there have been times when the CEO has made it very difficult for the Governance Boards, Commercial Evaluation Teams, and Technical Evaluation Teams, with appointed members of the union, to take independent decisions due to the intervention of the CEO under the guise of the SLT board’s requests.
An SLT board director, who declined to be named, told Business Times that the board has made it clear that all recommendations made by the members of the respective Governance boards, Commercial Evaluation Teams, and Technical Evaluation Teams should be submitted to the board.
Replying to this allegation Mr. Young said he is not interfering with the process of recommendations but reviewing it by considering commercial, technical and operational aspects of such recommendations.
A former board member told the Business Times that the CEO’s service contract was prepared by Maxis in Malaysia during former chairperson of SLT, Leisha de Silva Chandrasena’s tenure and it has many conditions unfavourable to the company.
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