Employees of Avant Guard Maritime Services urged the government to safeguard their jobs at a press conference yesterday.

Former Secretary to the Chairman of Avant Garde Maritime Services Kamal Gamage said that the company had earned over Rs 9 billion in foreign exchange, during the period from 2012 to 2014.

Meanwhile the firm’s former manager of Commercial Vessel Protection, Lt Col (retd) Nilantha Jayaweera said that around 6,500 persons including 4,000 persons who retired from the armed forces will lose jobs due to the government’s decision to hand over the operations to the Navy.

Furthermore, Lieutenant (retired) Nilupul de Costa, the Operations officer of MV Avant Garde, said that politicians were making contradictory claims to question the credibility of the company. Employees also pointed out that due to the baseless claims, they have been accused of being employed in a company involved in illegal activities. This has caused difficulties in their personal lives as well, they maintained.