The management of SriLankan Airlines has yesterday decided not to accept nor deal with the current ‘Flight Attendants Union’ of its national carrier.

As Colombo Telegraph exposed earlier, it was not the Flight Attendants Union, but a group of ordinary Cabin Crew Members that the management of the national carrier had been dealing with over the last five months.

The pretentious group headed by Cabin Manager Adrian Cramer went on to sign official letters claiming to be the officially appointed Executive Committee of the FAU, sign and encash cheques and even scheduled meetings with various management officials of the airline.

This was despite them been forewarned by the former President of the FAU Sidath Dedigama, who vehemently protested and even went on to emphasize that their unlawful takeover at a sparsely attended Annual General Meeting, would be fundamentally illegal. This was as an election according to their own constitution was not held prior to their takeover.

Writing officially to Cabin Manager Adrian Cramer on the 11th May 2014, the Head of Human Resources of Sri Lankan Airlines Pradeepa Kekulawala stated that the airline’s management will no longer be dealing with them in any official capacity.

Despite Colombo Telegraph exposing this from the inception and publishing a series of articles on this topic, it took the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines Ajith Dias and CEO Capt. Suren Ratwatte almost five months to act based on the facts presented.

Further after the airline’s official intimation, a newsletter was inserted into all 1200 plus Flight Attendant lockers containing disparaging remarks about the Chairman Ajit Dias, CEO Capt.Suren Ratwatte, Head of Flight Operations Capt. Rajind Ranatunga and Head of Human Resources Pradeepa Kekulawala.

“This action now warrants an investigation by the airline’s Security and Investigation Department, as nobody is permitted to do so especially after the airline’s management declared them persona non grata. However it is still to be established if the group of sixteen Cabin Crew Members would be terminated now for impersonation which is a serious violation according to the airline’s administration manual” a senior manager of the In Flight Service Department speaking on condition of anonymity told Colombo Telegraph as she is barred from speaking to the media.

The description and violation of country’s penal code 399 and 400 for impersonation stipulates “whoever cheats shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for term which may extend to one year, or with fine or with both”.

The group of pretentious Cabin Crew Members comprised of:

President – Adrian Cramer
Vice Presidents – Dion Jansz / Warren Hendricks
Secretary – Lanka Kamalgoda (Now resigned)
Assistant Secretary – Nithya Senanaya Samaranayaka (Now resigned – she was earlier released to work for Namal Rajapaksa and was unable to describe the exact location to the Jayaratne/Weliamuna inquiry, except the fact that it was in some location in the Temple Trees)
Treasurer – Elseworth Weerasinghe
Assistant Treasurer – Andre Wood
Cabin Manager Representative – Jeremy Misso (Owner of ‘Woodstock’ and private furniture supplier to the former President Rajapaksa) / Saranga Galahitiyawa
Cabin Supervisor Representative – Asela Hapugalle / Sanoli Alawatte
Flight Stewardess Representative – Dharini Denipitiya / Denushka Weerapperuma
Flight Steward Representative – Bevin De Silva / Prabodha Abeysinghe
Instructor Representative – Rohindra Abeysekara

We publish below the letter sent in by the airline’s Head of Human Resources Pradeepa Kekulawala in full: