Indians intrude into Sri Lankan labour markets
Indians working in Sri Lankan paddy fields has become a bone of contention with experts pointing out that lack of local labour has certainly become an issue.
These observations were made by outgoing CIC Chairman B.R.L. Fernando during his address at the Postgraduate Institute of Management’s (PIM) awards ceremony in Colombo on Wednesday. Army Commander Lt. Gen. Daya Ratnayaka was the chief guest at the event.
He noted that Indians were coming to the country and were engaged in harvesting on lands and then would travel back home. In this respect, he noted that Sri Lankans were least concerned about these workers now coming into the country but on the other hand were found to be more worried about the Indian estate workers.
The issue of Indians working illegally on tourist visas in paddy fields particularly in the eastern region has been highlighted in the past. At one point, the Government planned to bring in regulations to allow foreign workers on agriculture lands due to a shortage of local labour but withdrew the proposal due to opposition from various quarters.
During his speech, Mr. Fernando predicted a water war would soon ensue in view of the lack of or dearth of an adequate supply of water even for irrigation. He explained that during harvesting farmers complained that even the changing weather patterns were having a serious impact on their produce.
During the awards ceremony at the “Forum for Public Policy for Business Leaders”, certificates were awarded to those persons in leadership positions in a bid to recognise efforts of local business leaders grappling with public policy.
Certificates were awarded to: Mohammed Cassim, Rasindra Devendra, Sarasavi Fonseka, Mohammed Fazil, Sithambaram Sri Ganenthra, Pradeepa Kekulawala, Justin Meegoda, Mahesh Nanayakkara, Thusitha Nakandara, Angelo Patrick, Ayodya Perera, Eardley Perera, Nilantha Perera, Mayuka Ranasinghe, Dilshan Rodrigo, Dhanapala Sumanasiri, Kanakaratnam Vinoj, Shivanthi Weerasighe and Shashithangani Weerawansa.
These awardees had participated during the August- September- October period at a forum discussion on various aspects of public policy that were integrated as a course and supported by thought leaders and professionals like Indrajit Aponsu, Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, Prof. Tilak Fonseka, Dr. Saman Kelegama, Prof. Uditha Liyanage, Ms. Champika Malalgoda, Dileep Mudadeniya, Dr. Koshy Mathai, Dr. Rohan Perera, Dr. Nimal Sanderatne, Dr. Richard Vokes, and W. A. Wijewardena.
Management Professor and former Director PIM Uditha Liyanage speaking on the “New Keys to Managerial Success” highlighted some of the key traditional methods adopted in identifying leadership and observed how these have changed over the years inspite of where they were practised.
Today’s leader, he believed, must have interpersonal communication and become an information processor in a bid to deliver.
In the past a hierarchical structure was adopted to engage with the people in an organisation, he noted that this system was archaic today.
In fact, he noted that the problem with hierarchy was that there was an assumption that there was a distinction between planning and implementation.
Prof. Liyanage explained that while the planning was decided by the top level it was the lower level workers that were asked to implement these to obtain the end product.
In today’s line of thinking though the carrot and stick approach could be adopted in the case of highly routine jobs it was not employable in the case of creative work.
In this respect, he noted that leadership models need to get realigned in order to ensure that they be adapted to different spheres of work and thinking processes.