Employers also played a key role in ensuring a decent wage for workers
Much was written recently about the late Bala Tampoe who was indeed a colossus and made a mighty contribution to keeping workers’ rights in the forefront of political discussions and debates for over 60 years. Bala was very articulate and forceful and therefore able to win many battles albeit at the cost of antagonising many in the process. In my days at the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) I was privileged to interact with some other sterling trade union leaders who made a great contribution to the cause of workers and the union movement in a relatively less abrasive but equally effective manner. Stalwarts such as Saumyamoorthi Thondaman, N. Shanmugathasan, N.W. Panditha, Batty Weerakoon, M.G. Mendis, T.B. Subasinghe, Oswin Fernando and Leslie Devendra must be mentioned.
However, we keep commenting on employee trade unions and eulogizing the leaders of these unions without similarly giving credit to the leaders of the ‘employers union’ which has made as great or an even greater contribution to the cause of employees at all levels. The only employers union worth consideration was also the first to be registered under the Trade Unions Ordinance and the EFC is proud to hold the Registration No.1 under the Ordinance. The eagerness to register was a sign that the organisation respected the need to be a regulated, responsible body.
It is quite appropriate that this article is being written at a time when the EFC is about to mark its 85th year of existence.
Collective Bargaining made its mark in Ceylon, as it then was, with the first agreement signed in 1929 between A.E. Goonesinghe’s All Ceylon Trade Union Congress and the fledgling EFC. Since then the EFC has negotiated and signed dozens of agreements with unions, some of which have been after disputes arose, but also proactively to improve relationships between employers and employees. In recent times the EFC has aggressively promoted higher productivity and many unions now see the need to support productivity measures as a means of also protecting jobs.
Over the years the EFC has done more to change the behaviour of businesses towards their employees to the benefit of both sides and assisting the development of the nation. In the 1960s when the employees first started complaining about the disparity between the cost of living and the wage levels and there was need for a mechanism which automatically adjusted take home packets to cost of living increases, without constant wage adjustments (the CMU wanted salary discussions to be every six months!), the EFC suggested a cost of living payment which did not form part of the wage/salary as such. Thus was born the concept of the Non-Recurring Cost of Living Gratuity (NRCLG) which was first introduced in the EFC/CMU Collective Agreement of 1967 which was not re-negotiated for a record 14 years. The Manual Worker Agreements of 1971 also introduced this concept and gave those agreements also an amazing life span of 11 years! Of course, the Non-Recurring Cost of Living Gratuity (NRCLG) had its time and place and over the years the unions kept requesting increases over and above adjustments made on the Colombo Consumers Price Index which by then had outlived its usefulness. Employers were not getting any benefit from the NRCLG any longer and the concept had to be changed. However, regular negotiations took over and the EEC always ensured that employees were always compensated in line with the affordability of the enterprise. It was the EFC which moved for the standardisation of wages in 1971 by extending Collective Agreements for five trades to employers with more than a specified number of employees. Extensions are no longer done except in the case of plantation wages. The extension orders gave workers in the country a wage much higher than the Wages Board minimum.
The plantation industry would have collapsed in the 1990′s immediately after privatisation, as the government in order to convince the unions to accept the process of privatization had agreed to a wage increase which was beyond affordable limits, in addition to which there was a cost of living payment on which superannuation benefits were payable. The EFC was able to persuade Mr. Thondaman who was a wise and astute leader to agree to the removal of the cost of living payment and negotiations now take place without automatic adjustment of wages dictated by cost of living indices.
The removal of disparities between male and female employees was driven by the EFC when in 1982 the Collective Agreement wage levels were introduced, without discrimination between sexes, as part of the Wages Board rates. In the plantations also the disparities were removed only after privatisation with the EFC urging the change. One of the first things that the EFC did after privatisation was to point out to the Plantation Companies that wages had to be paid to the employee earning them and that payment to the husband did not discharge the employer from responsibility. However for cultural reasons, there appear to be estate women who permit their husbands to collect their wages even now!
In short, much can be said for the EEC’s role as a socially balanced and responsible organisation which has contributed as much as worker unions, or even more, to the development of employee rights in the country.
As much as Employee Trade Union leaders are saluted, one cannot forget at least one EFC head who has contributed towards the education of employees and their representatives, namely, Mr. Sriyan de Silva. His books have helped to educate lawyers, judges and trade unionists in the intricacies of the labour law and industrial relations. His views are cited as the absolute authority in the highest courts of the country. The EFC continues to update these valuable texts. The EFC Handbook is also now available to any interested party and the text is examined periodically and improved on.
When one looks around, there is much less industrial tension in the country and strikes are very seldom resorted to. Employers are now more educated in terms of their responsibilities and workers are more conscious of the need to accept that the employer has to sustain his business if he is to be in a position to continue to employ the worker. Applications to Labour Tribunals by dismissed employees in large establishments have also seen a reduction and so also complaints to the Labour Department. If one were to examine the impact of different actors in the industrial relations scene in Sri Lanka, one would immediately recognise the outstanding role played by the EFC and its leaders over the years.
(The writer is a former
Director-General of the EFC)