Sri Lanka bank unions oppose EPF and ETF merger
View(s):Ceylon Bank Employees Union (CBEU) on Tuesday fired the first salvo against government plans to merge the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Employers Trust Fund (ETF) and set up a new National Retirement Gratuity Fund. Plans are also underway to introdce a new pension scheme for private sector workers.CBEU members took to the streets in Fort on Tuesday to distribute leaflets among the public to create awareness on the high risk involved in the plan to merge two retirement funds of private sector workers into one. (Readers note: This story was written on Tuesday before Friday’s presentation of the budget).
Union President S.P. Jayarathne told a hurriedly arranged media conference in Colombo that removing the control of the Central Bank and the Labour Department over the EPF and vesting its management in an independent fund manager is risky as they could invest 100 per cent of the funds in financial instruments in accordance with their needs.Under the present set up only 10 per cent of the fund could be invested in the share market and the balance 90 per cent in government securities such as Treasury bills and bonds.He said that the CBEU will take the lead to rally round other trade unions to carry out massive protest demonstrations and agitation campaigns of workers countrywide to defeat the government’s plan to merge the two funds
The union will resort to legal action if the government is not prepared to shelve their plan, he warned.Keshra Kottegoda, executive committee member of the union, said that if the government needs to strengthen the fund then what it should do is to catch employers who are not paying EPF money on behalf of their employees.He noted that according to latest data, employers of only 2.4 million out of a private sector work force of 15.4 million are paying EPF contributions.In 2011, there were street protests in which a Free Trade Zone worker – 21 year-old Roshana Chanaka was shot dead by the police when attempts were made ny the then Rajapaksa administration to convert the EPF into a pension scheme.
(Bandula)