Com Bank bags gold in employer category

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has received the Gold award in the Employer category at the National Decent Work Awards 2009, in acknowledgement of its outstanding contribution to the advancement of the national goal of “Social Dialogue on Decent Work for All.”

This award stems from the commitment made by the Government, workers and employers’ representatives of Sri Lanka at the 13th Asian Regional Meeting of the ILO constituents in 2001 to develop a National Policy and a National Action Plan for Decent Work.

Commercial Bank’s Chief HR Officer Chitral Amarasiri receives the certificate from President Mahinda Rejapaksa. Ravi Dias, Chief Operations Officer of Commercial Bank looks on.

The award which recognises the commitment of the Commercial Bank towards creating decent work environment while sustaining high performance in a highly competitive market was presented to Ravi Dias, Chief Operations Officer of Commercial Bank by President Mahinda Rejapaksa at a gala award ceremony organized by the Ministry of Labour Relations and Manpower together with the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Sri Lanka.

‘The Decent Work Agenda’ of ILO is based on the principles and rights of workers at work, complying with international labour standards, employment and income opportunities, social protection, security and social dialogue, all directed at creating jobs of acceptable quality.

Commenting on this latest accolade, Commercial Bank’s Chief HR Officer Chitral Amarasiri said: “The bank has demonstrated its commitment to comply with national and international labour standards as well as to promote the concept of decent work, by creating quality employment opportunities with fair compensation packages and gender equality. As a responsible employer,

we recognize employee aspirations, promote and foster the fundamental elements of social dialogue and the importance of having a conducive work environment, while the employee organizations operating in the Bank strive to achieve improved productivity through positive influence on their membership.”

The Bank has complied with the ILO standards by ensuring freedom of association and right to collective agreements, by practicing world class human resources strategies to ensure rights at work, by providing all necessary facilities to ensure employee occupational safety and health and by introducing terminal benefit and insurance schemes in addition to traditional schemes, he said.

“This was a team effort and all employee organisations, the Board of Directors, Corporate and Senior Management, the Bank’s Human Resources team and the Employers Federation of Ceylon, as well as each and every individual in the company contributed towards achieving this level of excellence,” Amarasiri said. “I would like to extend my special gratitude to the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon for its constant advice and professional guidance towards achieving this accolade.”

Established in 1969, Commercial Bank is Sri Lanka’s leading bank, with dominant positions in consumer banking, treasury and securities markets. The Bank’s network covers 171 computer-linked branches & supermarket banking counters and 336 ATMs. The Bank has been adjudged Sri Lanka’s ‘Bank of the Year’ seven times by ‘The Banker’, a top notch global banking magazine and also been rated the ‘Best Bank in Sri Lanka’ for 11 consecutive years by US based ‘Global Finance’ Magazine. In July 2007 the Bank was named the ‘Best Bank’ in Sri Lanka by another prestigious international financial magazine ‘Euromoney’.