Lankan unions brace for confrontation over labour reforms initiative
View(s):Sri Lankan trade unions are bracing for a fresh struggle with the Government over moves, since mid-2015, to prepare labour law reforms saying the workers and their representatives as stakeholders need to be more involved in these discussions.
In the latest development, the Ceylon Federation of Labour (CFL) said this week that it was concerned at what it called “the government’s indecent haste” to bring about reform of the labour market as desired by USAID and the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade.
It further pointed out that such an exercise should have been handled by the Ministry of Labour and Trade Union Relations and not any other ministry, and that by doing so, the Labour Ministry “has abdicated its role and responsibilities to steer the course of labour in the country”.
This is the second time in consecutive months that unions have been angered by non-labour authorities dabbling in labour reforms.
The plan for labour reforms has riled trade unions since mid-2015 on the grounds that they too should be involved in the process. Nearly 30 unions in a joint letter to the ILO Country Director in Colombo on October 15, 2015 raised concerns after learning that the ILO was engaged in a review of labour laws sans the involvement of the workers.
Then, this year on August 3, Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of the Committee Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees’ Union, acting on behalf of a collective of unions, wrote to S.A. Nimal Saranathissa, Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Trade Union Relations and Sabaragamuwa, objecting to the entry of a foreign party and the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade in labour reforms.
Again it was stated that this was the role of the Labour Department and the Ministry of Labour, and no one else.
In this week’s statement, the CFL said the Working Committee of the Ministry has put in place to propose that labour market reform lacks legitimacy and credibility as it has not received endorsement of the unions and includes only those acceptable to the government.
Privately, union officials told the Business Times that at a special meeting of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) on August 16, Minister of Labour announced the names of Messrs. Leslie Devendra, Wasantha Samarasinghe, Anton Marcus and K. Marimuthu as members of the Working Committee.
A majority of NLAC unions then wrote back to the Minister against his usurping the right of the unions to nominate their representatives.
On August 25, this was changed and representatives of the JSS, SLNSS, CWC and ICEU were appointed to constitute the Working Committee. However these nominations do not have the endorsement of other unions in the NLAC, the officials said.
The CFL letter noted that, “The CFL is astonished to find that among the persons constituting the Working Committee is a person whom the ILO has characterized as one who cannot be regarded as a genuine representative of workers.”
“In a situation when a huge backlog of compliance deficits of ILO core conventions and an equally long list of outstanding matters to be finalized by the NLAC remain unattended due to the government’s lack of genuine political will to address them, the intended project to bring about labour market reform is bound to be an exercise in futility as no real trade union involvement would be forthcoming so long as no meaningful action is taken on the above mentioned issues,” the CFL said.
It said that if the government desires labour market reforms it should make such intention clear to the people at large and justify, the need through the publication of a White Paper setting out the contours of the reform programme and the objectives it seeks to achieve.
“We insist that the decisions the government has taken to go along with the USAID project to reform the labour market should not proceed without a proper and constructive engagement with the people more especially the working people in the country. It needs to be a transparent process and the public made aware through the media both electronic and print. Pursuing any other course would be fraught with disappointing consequences,” the statement added.