Parliament

Flying bread and rumpus in the dark

By Chandani Kirinde, Our lobby correspondent
If people were expecting their parliamentary representatives to start off the New Year's business on a more efficient and better-behaved manner, they couldn't have been more wrong.

Sittings on the first two days were suspended for more than two and a half hours, once due to disagreements on certain bills before the House and once as a result of a power cut while the third day saw an opposition legislator hurling slices of bread at government members in protest at increasing prices of the staple diet.

Tuesday's suspension lasted nearly two hours after opposition legislators demanded that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe meet with them and discuss the postponement of three controversial labour laws namely the Industrial Disputes (Hearing and Determination of Proceedings Special Provisions) Bill, the Industrial Disputes (Amendments) Bill and the Termination of Employment of Workers (special provisions - amendments) Bill before they were introduced to the House.

Wednesday saw sittings being suspended for more than 40 minutes after a power cut left the Chamber in the dark while PA Parliamentarian Jagath Pushpakumara took the unprecedented step of hurtling slices of bread at Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake during the course of the debate on the Consumers Affairs Authority Bill which was presented and passed in the House on Thursday.

The labour laws of which had been written and spoken of for several weeks didn't create the lively debate that was expected when they were taken up. Although opposition parties had huffed and puffed for weeks that they would force the government to withdraw the Bills, they couldn't exactly blow the House down when the debate got off the ground, but instead managed to gain several major compromises from the government side that ensured the smooth passage of the Bills.

At the onset of the day's business, Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapakse appealed to the government to postpone bringing the Bills as they were detrimental to workers’ rights and needed to be thoroughly discussed with trade unions and other parties before being enacted. His sentiments were endorsed by the JVP's Wimal Weerawansa.

"This is the first days sittings for the year and we want to work in a conciliatory manner with the government. So we ask the government to postpone these bills," Mr.Weerawansa said.

They had an unlikely ally in TNA Trincomalee district MP R.Sampanthan who too made a similar appeal to the government side.

As the opposition leader had called for a party leaders discussion prior to moving ahead with the Bills, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe intervened at this stage to request Speaker Joseph Michael Perera to suspend sittings for some time so that a discussion could be held mainly pertaining to amendments that had been suggested to the three Bills.

Sittings re-commenced more than an hour and half later with Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe introducing the Bills, but back stage manoeuvrings continued till late evening with the Prime Minister meeting with representatives of several major trade unions in Parliament who said the Bills were not discussed with them and appealed to the Premier to remove some of the more Draconian clauses included in them.

The CWC too had expressed reservations about the Bills as they could be used adversely against estate workers but assurances by the government that a "social safety net" in the form of monetary compensation would be put in place before these laws were implemented won them the support of the CWC. "

A team of ILO experts are carrying out a study to formulate a comprehensive unemployment insurance scheme for affected workers. I give an assurance to this august assembly that without an additional comprehensive safety net, the amendments would not be made effective," Minister Samarasinghe told the House.

The JVP which has been engaged in organizing several public protests and poster campaigns against the Bills accused Mr. Samarasinghe of not being the Minister of Labour but the Minister of Employers - "haam putunge amathiwaraya".

"We cannot approve these laws like blind men and see workers suffer. We need a detailed explanation of this safety net that the Minister is proposing before these are made law," JVP Gampaha district MP Vijitha Herath said. Two former Labour Ministers John Seneviratne and Mahinda Rajapakse too chided Mr.Samarasinghe of siding with the employers and selling out the rights of the workers."

There was a power failure as soon as the bills were moved. It is a clear signal of the dark era that will dawn for the workers with the passage of these laws,"Mr.Rajapakse cautioned.Parliamentarian Sarath Amunugama queried why the government was rushing through the laws when there was so much opposition to them.

"The government has been forced to back down and allow many amendments. One by one the teeth are being removed and the Minister will be unable to bite as such as he expected," Dr.Amunugama said.

Despite the extended hours given to debate and pass the bills on Tuesday from 10.00a.m. to 9.00p.m., it was not possible to do so with only one bill, the Industrial Disputes (Hearing and determination of proceedings Special provisions) Bill being passed that day.

The other Bills were taken up on Wednesday morning with the opposition demanding a separate vote for each of them but the government managed to easily muster enough votes to push them through with the TNA members which had initially had some apprehensions about the bills, too siding with the government when it came to voting time.

Sittings on Wednesday got off to an inauspicious start with a series of power cuts forcing the Speaker to suspend sittings for nearly forty minutes. Ironically, Power and Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya walked into the Chambers soon after the power cut amidst shouts by opposition members that this might be a deliberate act to put the minister in trouble.

The bread-throwing incident took place on Thursday when PA Moneragala district MP Jagath Pushpakumara threw slices of bread mainly directed at Minister Ravi Karunanayake in protest at increasing prices of bread. The issue has now been referred to the Privileges Committee after it was raised by Parliamentary Affairs Minister A.H.M.Azwer who said that this was a violation of the privileges of the House.

The Speaker said he would look into the matter and report back to the House. Friday also saw the adjournment of the House half an hour before scheduled time after MEP MP Dinesh Gunawardene sought more time to speak on a private members motion calling for the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The Speaker disallowed his request, which led to a heated argument between the two forcing the Speaker to abruptly halt sittings.

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