* State sector workers to take action over pay * Govt won wage restraint to fight Tamil Tiger guerrillas * Govt under pressure to cut spending to meet IMF loan terms By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - State sector workers in Sri Lanka will take industrial action from Nov. 11 for more pay, a senior trades union leader said on Sunday, even as the government tries to slash spending to meet the terms of an IMF loan deal. State power, water, oil and port workers will do no work outside their assigned duties or working hours under their work to rule protest, said Ranjan Jayalal, convenor of united trade union front at the state-owned power firm. "We have decided to launch a joint trade union action of work-to-rule from Nov. 11 until we get the salary hike," Jayalal told Reuters soon after the decision. Since coming to power in 2005, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has largely avoided conflict with Sri Lanka's labour and student unions, having asked them in 2006 to hold off on protests until the military had defeated Tamil Tiger separatists. But since the government crushed the rebels to end a 25-year war in May, unions have begun to demand more pay to compensate for the higher cost of living. A four-day work-to-rule protest at the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) last week saw closure of many oil retailers after pumps dried due to inadequate supply of oil. The action comes after a series of strikes backed by opposition parties that failed to win post-war salary hikes. The latest action comes at a difficult time for Rajapaksa, who faces presidential and parliamentary polls by April and pressure to cut expenditure. The government is supposed to reduce the budget deficit to 7 percent this year from around 9 percent, under the terms of a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan. [ID:nSP539379] "We are not worried about the strikes," Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, the government's cabinet spokesman told Reuters. "A majority of trade unions are with us." Yapa said, unlike in the past, the government would not use the military to carry out essential services to defeat the strike. "We have our own ways to tackle the issue rather than using military and police. We will make sure everything is alright,2 he said. Sri Lanka has a long history of protests and strikes by trade and student unions before elections. (Editing by Jon Boyle)
A university student shouts near a puppet of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a protest in Colombo October 28, 2009. The Inter-university Students Union staged a protest campaign calling for ...
