Public Health Inspectors will suspend the submission of all data and reports to the health administration from 8.00 a.m. on Monday, the latest and broadest escalation of a month-old dispute over a transfer at the Bandaranaike International Airport health office.
The union said all Public Health Inspectors and Administrative Public Health Inspectors across the country will take part. Alongside halting reports, they will stop updating all departmental data systems — and the association has warned that anything not submitted during the action will not be entered retrospectively once it ends.
That warning is the sharpest element of the action. PHIs generate the routine returns that underpin national disease surveillance, including dengue larval surveys and food safety inspection, so a gap in the record cannot simply be backfilled later.
The transfer at the centre of it
The action follows the transfer of Public Health Inspector B.H. Meegasdeniya, who the union says was moved after objecting to alleged irregular activities at the airport health office in Katunayake. It set out its position in a letter to the Ministry of Health dated August 23.
The association is demanding that what it calls an arbitrary transfer be cancelled immediately, and that a fair investigation be held into the allegations it has raised in earlier correspondence with the ministry. It says authorities were informed previously but the ministry has yet to provide a solution.
The union also objected to what it described as attempts to reduce the approved cadre of Public Health Inspectors at both the Colombo Port Health Office and the airport health office — a grievance that had not featured in its earlier filings.
Despite the escalation, the association said it remains willing to cooperate fully with a fair investigation and is prepared to enter discussions with the authorities at any time.
An escalating sequence
The dispute has widened steadily. The union first weighed island-wide strike action on August 19, then withdrew from dengue control duties from August 20, and reported sick island-wide in a token strike on August 21.
The two outlets differ slightly on the officer’s name: Ada Derana renders it Meegasdeniya, matching Daily Mirror’s own August 21 report, while Daily Mirror’s Sunday filing spells it Migasdeniya. Neither outlet reported a response from the Health Ministry.
