Financial Times

Companies consider rights only when workers strike
By Quintus Perera
The only language understood by the management of Sri Lankan companies is strike action to settle worker grievance, says Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary, Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union.

Speaking at an interesting panel discussion on ‘Human Resources Issues in the workplace’ at The Sunday Times Business Club meeting last week at the Trans Asia Hotel, Marcus said while trade unions should be treated as social partners, it was a major struggle to form trade unions. This was despite Sri Lanka ratifying UN covenants on Collective Bargaining and Freedom of Association and there are specific laws on trade unions.

The meeting was hosted by Trans Asia Hotel and co-sponsored by Lion BreweryLtd, makers of Carlsberg and Lion beer. The other two panelists were Jayantha Jayaratne, Deputy General Manager Human Resources, Commercial Bank who spoke on "Present Industrial unrest and the future of Sri Lanka" while Janaka Kumarasinghe, President, Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka discussed "HR for a competitive advantage."

The cross-section of views of the employer and trade union in an open forum led to a lively discussion. When Jayaratne accused trade unions of political affiliations and that some are manned by outsiders, Marcus hit back to say that during election time the private sector would support all political parties adding that the private sector too has outsiders such as various chambers and associations assisting them in addition to outside consultants.

Marcus accused the employers of employing retired armed forces personnel as HR Managers in factories where they regimented the workers. Jayaratne mooted the setting up of trade unions in all establishments indicating that the trade unions have a very important role to play and if the workers are motivated, productivity could be enhanced.

Marcus said a major problem has been that the private sector is mortally scared of trade unions and they take drastic measures to break the formation of unions. Marcus also quoted the example of the Jaqalanka garment factory to show how strongly the private sector resisted the formation of trade union. He said the Labour Department has been neglecting its responsibility of facilitating the workers in winning their grievances but people used to blame the trade unions for all disputes and not the employer.

He conceded that politicisation of trade unions creates problems but the other side of the coin is that without political affiliation, companies don't recognize unions. With globalisation the whole world is changing and it is globally accepted that having unions contributed to increase profits.

“If there were 500 workers there would be 500 problems but if there is one trade union, you deal with one problem-one group." Jayantha Jayaratne told the meeting that during the last few months there were strikes in hospitals, railway, universities that paralyzed the entire life of the country. Due to labour disputes large establishments were forced to close down with thousands of workers losing their jobs. He said investors didn't come to Sri Lanka not because of the war but since industrial unrest directly affected productivity.

The Electricity Board and Sri Lanka Telecom each have 35 unions, creating an unimaginable mess. He was not in favour of state involvement in settling private sector disputes as employers and employees could settle them. Trade union unrest has been due to high degree of dependence on state intervention.

There are many labour laws but what is lacking is a National Policy on Industrial Relations. The Minister of Labour would like to settle disputes to gain popularity while the role of the Labour Department has been totally inadequate, he said.

IPM's Janaka Kumarasinghe said nobody can escape globalization where things are inter-connected and in HR management one cannot forget the environment which affects the organization.

Human resources management becomes an integral part and a strategic partner of the organization for business success. Therefore, every manager becomes a HR manager.

On the macro side, he said the country's main resource has been the people. This resource with professionally trained skills should be marketable in the backdrop of cheap labour in China, India and a host of other countries which have a competitive advantage to this country. Serious thoughts have to be given to productivity as it is low, "though we have to compete regionally and globally."

In the plantation industry 50 percent are labourers and the social attitude towards them is low to the extent that workers don't want their children to follow them. The dignity of labour should be respected There should be better performance and management systems to improve productivity and to remove this social stigma of low acceptance.

There should be the right recruitments. People don't get the jobs they prefer, leading to frustration. The work culture should be conducive to work and the usual culture of finding fault should be changed. Entrepreneurs take risks and the probability of committing mistakes would be high.

Entrepreneurs create wealth and employment for the society and society must understand their position and accept failures which is part of the learning curve. Kumarasinghe said that there should be support given to entrepreneurs. Once an entrepreneur gets bankrupt, he should be given a chance to come back.

He said the farmer who plays a big role in the economy should be more recognized and provided better management and research to be more productive.

Back to Business