Digital services powered by Kodak
The People's Bank management has accused a top bank union of breaking an earlier commitment that it would not interfere with the institution's recruitment policy.
"The CBEU (Ceylon Bank Employees' Union) is clearly breaking its commitment by this current agitation against the new management. Further, it is not the prerogative of the unions to determine the composition of the management of the bank. The unions should also not try to pre-empt the decisions of any new board of directors, who in any event will review the performance of management," the bank said in a statement last week.
It said there was no justification in union action especially by the CBEU since the latter at a meeting with the management on November 15, 2001 had said that while external recruitment was not welcome, "as a responsible union they do not interfere with the management."
"They further stated that external recruitment has become a general issue within the banking sector and therefore urged the management to have a dialogue before any further recruitment in future," the statement by the bank's CEO/General Manager, Derek Kelly said.
Dozens of bank employees on Tuesday protested against 13 senior executives hired by the bank, saying their involvement in management has resulted in nothing but losses.
The People's Bank Officers' Association (PBOA) and the CBEU told reporters that these officials had violated a 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and the bank management.
The executives, all professionals hired on a four-year contract to turnaround the loss-making bank, say they have been threatened by the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (JSS) and forced to stay away from work since the new government assumed office. Bank chairman Mano Tittawela is learnt to have submitted his resignation last week.
The statement said resistance to the officers resuming work has left the bank in a state of vulnerability. "Certain factions of the bank's unions who are against reform and individuals accountability for performance have now embarked on a plan to obstruct the implementation of reforms by preventing the new management from functioning properly," it said.
It said the bank recruited a new team of private sector professionals to undertake a complete restructure of the bank in mid-2000. The first task of this team, together with some of the existing senior managers, was the development of a 3-year plan for the bank.
Since then considerable financial and other progress has been achieved towards turning around the People's Bank, that recorded a financial loss of Rs. 8.7 billion in 1999 and Rs. 1.7 billion in 2000, to the extent that a modest profit after provision for bad debts is expected for 2001.
Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd has trained a group of its employees in general counselling skills to further enhance employee well-being, the bank said.
A group of 21 employee counsellors who completed a 12-day intensive training course on counselling took their oaths to uphold the code of ethics of counselling and were awarded certificates at a ceremony held recently.
"The high degree of productivity and quality improvements demanded under the prevailing socio-economic climate has necessitated maintaining a balance in the mental and physical health of employees," said Amitha Gooneratne, the bank's managing director.
"The bank invests a considerable amount of money for the development of human resources. We know it will continue to pay rich dividends," he said.
The course was organised by the Staff Development Centre of the Commercial Bank and conducted by the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, under the guidance of the Institute's Executive Director, Dr. S. Rathnapriya.
Sri Lanka's Ministry of Industries is setting up a unit to offer instant solutions to problems of industrialists and entrepreneurs, Industries Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said.
"Our aim is to record 10 percent economic growth by 2003. For this we need to put our economic fundamentals right," he said.
The industrial facilitation unit would help solve industrial grievances with immediate solutions.
Bogollagama said his ministry was treating industries on a level playing field, leaving out emphasis on Board of Investment (BOI) or non-BOI status companies. At present there are 1,800 BOI enterprises and 10,000 medium and large scale non-BOI enterprises in the country.
He said he would be focusing on new areas to promote industries in order to take regional development to the village and create an industrial culture.
The ministry is also looking at issuing facing industrialists like inflation, debts and employment generation in the country and looking at ways of helping industry in this situation.
- (HR)
Dialog GSM, Sri Lanka's premier digital cellular network and pioneer of several state-of-the-art mobile telecommunications services, recently launched its newest service branded SMS 112 for the hearing and speech-impaired community.
"This concept of emergency service geared at the hearing and speech impaired would be a worldwide first," the company said in a statement.
This service is aimed at assisting the hearing impaired in situations where police notification or intervention is required.
Branded as SMS 112, the system is designed specifically for people with hearing, speech and even visual disabilities where short coded SMS would act as an alert for them and connect them to the nearest Police Emergency Hot Line.
Two things happen simultaneously - a voice call is automatically generated from the originating SMS at the police station while a chat session opens up on a computer though which police can ask and receive information via SMS. Thereafter the police would respond to emergency situations.
Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, the company chief executive, said Dialog GSM was deeply committed to creating new services for Sri Lankan consumers with the objective of ensuring the local industry would not be second to its counterparts in developed countries.
The travel industry in South Asia has seen some improvement in recent weeks after a major reversal from the September 11 attacks in the United States, industry officials said.
Karun Budhraja, senior manager, marketing and corporate communications of the Indian subcontinent at Amadeus India, said travel by residents in South Asia to western destinations is showing signs of a recovery.
"After the September 11 attack, there was a 30 percent fall in travel to the west from this region in the first week itself. This fall came down to 17 percent by October/November and from December we are seeing an increase of 10 percent in the number of travellers to the west from South Asia," he said during a visit to Colombo last week.
Budhraja and Amadeus India Managing Director, Ankur Bhatia, were in Colombo to meet the travel trade and discuss local and international issues including the revival of the regional and global industry.
Amadeus is one of the world's biggest global distribution systems and technology providers serving the marketing, sales and distribution needs of the world's travel and tourism industries. It is jointly owned by Lufthansa German Airlines, Air France and Iberia Airlines.
Amadeus India represents India and the subcontinent, and has 26 offices in the region including Colombo. More than 3,215 travel agents are on-line to Amadeus with terminal installations exceeding 5,100 in 72 cities.
Budhraja said in addition to providing advanced technology for the travel and tourism industry, Amadeus also provides flight information on mobile phones.
He said there are 500 airlines on the Amadeus system linked to terminals in the offices of travel agents in Colombo.
Gestetner of Ceylon Ltd has seen success with its strategy of outsourcing all office automation products, particularly photocopiers on the basis of payment per copy instead of selling the machine.
"Build the core business by outsourcing the chores," said Anton Senadipathy, Chief Executive Officer of Gestetner. "We offer a total solution to our customers."
The company introduced the new concept of outsourcing, called 'Passport To Profit (P2P)', last year. The P2P system helps customers cut costs as a big investment is not required. The competitive business environment and the rapid changes in technology have popularised the concept of outsourcing.
Gestetner gives the photocopiers free and the clients are charged on a per copy basis determined on copy volume. The company has so far acquired 75 customers and given out more than 100 machines under this concept. "We have been extremely successful," said Senadipathy. "There is no company in Sri Lanka geared or equipped to provide this type of service." (DM)
Journalists invited to cover a conference chaired by Plantations Minister, Lakshman Kiriella with CEOs of state-owned plantations companies, were in for an unpleasant surprise last week.
They were asked to leave the function hall to make room for other officials. Earlier the journalists were ushered into the main auditorium where the conference was to be held and served with tea.
Later an unidentified ministry official told the media to move to a corner of the auditorium to make room for others. Minister Kiriella, who arrived 70 minutes late for the meeting, told journalists to leave the room promising a press statement later.
Is this the new media policy of the government?
The Central Bank last week advised commercial banks to take necessary steps to exchange their stocks of Euro area national currency notes and coins for Euros.
It said the banks could also place orders for the requirement of new Euro currency notes and coins through their respective agents.
"Holders of Euro area national currencies are hereby advised to exchange their holdings of old Euro area national currency notes and coins for new Euro currency notes and coins with Commercial Banks before June 30, 2002," the Central Bank statement added.
The Euro was introduced in 12 countries on January 1.
The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) said it has introduced a power and energy sector with the listing of power generation company, Lakdhanavi Ltd, on January 10.
Currently listed companies come under 16 sectors such as banking, finance and insurance, food and beverages, etc.
With the addition of a power and energy sector, the CSE would have 17 sectors. The CSE also publishes an index for each of these sectors.
Lakdhanavi Ltd is a public utility company incorporated in 1996. It has set up a 22.5 mega watt thermal power generation plant that supplies power to the national grid.
It is the first private sector thermal power plant set up under the Build-Own-Operate (BOO) status in the country.
Lakdhanavi Ltd was quoted on the CSE by way of an introduction, where the company is listed without the requirement of a public issue, a CSE press release said.
