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Labour Department restructuring runs into dispute
View(s):Unionists to continue work to rule campaign
A Government proposal to restructure the Labour Department is running into crisis with trade unions threatening to continue a work to rule campaign launched in protest. Labour Commissioner General Chandani Amaratunga said restructuring of the department was long overdue and the Labour Minister had appointed a committee of three comprising two retired senior ministry officials and a former ministry secretary to look into it.
“The committee’s decisions are not even out, but these union members started a work-to- rule campaign from Wednesday,” she told the Sunday Times. Ms Amaratunga said that she received letters from the unionists on September 1, and she had held a meeting with them on Monday. Minister John Seneviratne also attended the meeting she said. “At the meeting the Minister, Ministry Secretary and others welcomed ideas from the unionist. It was explained to them that the restructuring was needed and it was agreed to appoint a separate committee within three months to look into the issues raised by them.”
“Creating a salary scheme and promotion scheme is not a simple task. It is true that they are not satisfied, but they too should learn to wait till we appoint a new committee if they need a change,” she said.
However the trade unionists claim that the Labour Department and the Ministry were trying to ‘privatise’ the department in the guise of restructuring it by weakening the Department structure. Government Services Labour Officers’ Association president Iresh Chinthaka Gamage said they opposed the restructuring as it would affect their salaries as well.
He said they had earlier formulated their own proposals regarding the restructuring and they had handed them over to the former Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge, but nothing had come of it. Mr. Gamage said they opposed the composition of the committee as it had no cabinet approval, although the minister had assured them that approval would be sought.
He claimed that the meeting with the minister materialised only after they launched a token strike and since there was disagreement at the meeting they had decided to continue with the work to rule campaign. He said the work to rule campaign would affect some 23,000 labour cases as documentation would be delayed.