Labour law reform only with people's mandate - Ceylon Federation of
Labour
The Government's Medium Term Economic Development Policy Framework
announced on 5th November 2015 strongly envisages the freeing of land,
labour and capital of all remaining restrictions and controls to entice
investment, both local and foreign, to generate one million job
opportunities. The removal of so called impediments to free trade
obviously also refers to reform of labour laws.
While we respect the government's prerogative to adopt laws dealing
with employment generation we urge you not to proceed with any planned
labour law reform process until the following issues are remedied:-
1) Amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act No. 56 of 1996 on Unfair
Labour practices submitted by the trade unions to the Tripartite
National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) giving effect to Part I of the
National Workers Charter (1995).
2) Amendment to Sec. 59A of the Wages Board Ordinance unanimously
agreed upon by the NLACas far back as 2009; that deals with the
phenomenon of manpower agency sub-contracted workers.
3) The submission of the new draft Act on Occupational Safety and
Health to parliament - held in abeyance since 1998 for unknown reasons.
4) The improvement of labour inspection and enforcement.
5) The passing of amendments to the Maternity Benefits Ordinance and
the Shop & Office Employees Act fulfilling the observations and
recommendations of the Committee of Experts on the Application of
Conventions & Recommendations of the ILO pending from 1996.
6) The removal of compulsory overtime provisions from the Factories
Ordinance; overtime to be consonant with international norms.
7. Security of Savings of workers in the EPF and ETF.
We consider this as an urgent need given the glaring deficits in our
local law and practices vis-a-vis the requirements set out by labour
standards. The present government has no direct mandate to placate
employer interests through reforming the existing labour laws or
bringing new legislation in favour of employers. The Election Manifestos
of both the UNP and the UPFA make no mention, whatsoever, regarding this
aspect of their policy. In the absence of an electoral mandate to make
the labour market flexible to satisfy investor interests, if the
government now desires labour market reforms it shall first make such
intention clear to the public and justify its need through an official
statement addressed to the people.
We insist that any decision that may be adopted shall be done on y
after a proper and constructive engagement with the general public, more
particularly, the working people of this country.
R. Rasseedin
Deputy General Secretary
CFL open letter to Prime Minister
6th Sept, 2016.
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