COLOMBO, July 14 -- A group of railway gatekeepers has appealed to the government to grant them permanent appointments and settle months of unpaid wages, saying they have spent 14 years working at hazardous railway crossings without adequate pay or employment benefits.

Representatives of the workers submitted a letter to the Presidential Secretariat on Monday (13), urging authorities to resolve long-standing employment issues affecting hundreds of railway gatekeepers.

Speaking to reporters after handing over the petition, Dhammika Munasinghe, Co-Secretary of the Joint Trade Union Federation of Government and Provincial Public Services, said the workers had been serving at dangerous railway crossings for more than a decade without being ...