CMU concerns over new labour law reforms
View(s):The Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU) has urged workers to fight against attempts to repeal some existing laws with the aim of attracting foreign investors.
“Almost all tax bills have been repealed with the aim of encouraging and providing concessions to Chinese investors in the port city, and the only law that provided job security to workers in this country, the Termination of Employment Act, has also been repealed and gazette notifications signed by the President have been published. Although the committee appointed by the government claims to be academics, it is not difficult to understand that they may have little experience with these laws brought about through historical struggles,” the CMU said in a statement.
It said the government has announced that steps have been taken to review and submit recommendations to a committee appointed by the current government on the Single Labour Law draft prepared by the previous government. It should be noted here that the Labour Law Reforms prepared by the previous government repealed 13 major laws and Acts that had existed for many years to protect workers in the country and give legal force to the letter of appointment exchanged between the employee and the employer at the workplace level under the name of a single law.
The process followed by the previous government’s Labour Minister, Manusha Nanayakkara, to draft the amendment and the content of the draft were rejected by almost all the major trade unions, in the private sectors. Trade unions belonging to the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna also participated in the protests against it, and Wasantha Samarasinghe, who appeared to be the labour leader at the time and is now a minister in the government, also protested strongly. Now, as the minister, it will be clearly known whether he is standing on the side of the employers who are demanding the amendment of the labor laws, which will enslave all the workers in the private sector, including their members, or on the side of the workers who voted for them, the Union said in a statement.
“This government, which claims that dollars are needed to build the country, will also act to sell the country’s physical and human resources for scrap. Our history has recorded numerous instances where those who ruled by winning the majority of votes of the workers and oppressed sections of the population ultimately betrayed them blatantly. There is no doubt that the current government will also follow the same method,” it said.
As a trade union that has stood up for workers’ rights through historical struggles in Sri Lanka and is still standing up, the CMU said the working people should unite and raise their voices, believing in their own strength, to defeat this attempt by the government.
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