EFC’s puerile attempt to invoke ILO Conventions
The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC), in a media release issued through its Director General Ravi Peiris has sought to decry the proposal of the government to increase wages of private sector employees and held out the threat to go before the ILO alleging violation by the government of ILO Convention No. 98 and No. 100.
The Ceylon Federation of Labour (CFL) challenges the EFC to do so, so that we would know, how a body like the ILO which is a tripartite body constituting the government, employers and workers could impinge on the sovereign right of a country to look after the welfare of its citizens through fair wages which constitute the hallmark of the Decent Work Programme of the ILO to which Sri Lanka subscribes.
In a vain attempt to support his position and frustrate the implementation of the governments’ proposal Mr. Peiris advances specious arguments which has no relevance to the actual situation in the country.
From as far as back as 2008 the trade unions in the private sector have been urging the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to take steps to close the widening gap in the start-up salaries of public sector and private sector employees by instituting a National Minimum Wage and, in the interim to pay a budgetary relief allowance of Rs. 5,000 after much foot-dragging under pressure from employers the Budget for 2015 announced a minimum salary of Rs. 10,000 for employees in the private sector. It is in this context the present government made the proposal to recommend to private employers the grant of an increase upto Rs. 2,500. The CFL notes with no surprise the irresponsible reaction of the employers to the government’s proposal. For the employers any wage increase represents a cost of production and they instinctively resist any increase in the present level of wages. But a responsible government cannot be insensitive to the hardship that million of workers undergo in the private sector.We do not have an institutional wage determination mechanism at the national level with automatic wage indexation system with wages to be reviewed periodically taking into consideration such factors as profitability, productivity of enterprises together with inflation and cost of living.
The EFC in an effort to mislead cynically refers to the collective bargaining process with trade unions as envisaged in C. 98 while in reality it has encouraged undermining of trade unions by employers. It has shown in no uncertain terms its obstinate unwillingness to update and streamline the right to collective bargaining by opposing strengthening of I.D. (Amendment) Act No. 56 of 1999 as proposed by the unions in the National Labour Advisory Council.
The public is unaware that only a handful number of collective agreements covering a minute percentage of workers presently exist. The Wages Board machinery and the instruments of collective agreements do not cover all workers. Resort to Wages Board mechanism to achieve government’s intention is fraught with difficulties and time consuming. Our employers are very adept at making insidious moves to frustrate such efforts. The private employers by nature are not amenable to appeals and exhortations by governments or unions. Experience tells us that unless the employers are enjoined by law to bring necessary relief to their employees the government’s desire is bound to be an unrealisable dream. The CFL is of the firm view that in the face of the intransigence shown by the employers the only avenue available to the government, should it desire to bring meaningful relief to the beleaguered workers in the private sector is to bring a law to provide for the payment of the proposed increase by employers to workers as was done in 1968, 1978, 1979 and 2005 covering all employees with penal provisions for failure to comply with the law.
The CFL is confident that the EFC’s puerile attempt to invoke ILO conventions in support of its unreasonable stand-off with the government on the matter of bringing much desired economic relief to workers is bound to fail as was the attempts of global employers organisations to get the ILO to deny workers the right to strike. They got it completely wrong, so will our Employers Federation of Ceylon realise the folly of invoking ILO jurisprudence to deny an increase in wages of our workers. The CFL supports and insist that the proposed salary increase should come into effect through the provision of necessary legislation by Parliament without delay.