Wage fixing to be decided concurrently with trade unions and employers
In recent years although much focus has been placed on creating enough jobs and quality jobs, the working conditions and adequate compensation issues have received less attention, according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives Simrin Singh.
She was addressing a workshop on the topic “To disseminate findings on government budgetary relief Allowance on Workers Act and its Impact on business sector establishments” at the Renuka hotel in Colombo this week.
Ms. Singh said that almost half the global labour force works for a wage with wage earners and their families depending on it and wages being central to the world of work. The ILO believes in the importance of respecting workers rights and giving a voice at the work place which are key to improving productivity in the workplace. The United Nations 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development also calls for sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all that highlights the importance of achieving equal pay for work of equal value.
She said wage fixation can sometimes become contentious when proper social dialogue mechanism such as collective bargaining are not used in wage setting. Social dialogue processes have the potential to resolve important economic and social issues, encourage good governance.”Wage setting also promote gender equality although the gender pay gap is big across all regions. However studies show that countries with wide collective bargaining have a smaller gender pay gap, another powerful argument for collective bargaining,” she added.
General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya Leslie Devendra said the invitation to attend the ILO workshop came as a surprise to him as he was not aware that such an exercise was taking place and could have added more inputs if such an exercise was known before. He said the most important issue was whether governments should interfere with decisions on wages. However the ideal situation would be for parties to get together and look at their own problems and then voluntarily decide on wages structure.   Referring to the government promoting collective bargaining, he said the question was whether collective bargaining took place in the country at all.
“The vast majority of workers do not have organisations that represent trade unions for whatever reasons as we know. Trade Unions represent less than 10 per cent of the workforce,” he said.
Director General of The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC) Kanishka Weerasinghe said that the EFC represents around 650 employers consisting of 7000-8000 people. Along with the Minister of Finance request to increase the salaries of the private sector by Rs. 2,500, the EFC also supported that move. However he said without an increase in productivity when wages are increased in an ad hoc manner it could create problems.
Senior Assistant Secretary, of the Ministry of Labour A. Wimalaweera said that there are 8.2 people in the workforce of which 1.4 million were in the government sector, three million in the private sector and the balance in the informal sector who earn less wages.