The Government has agreed that it will not intervene arbitrarily in private sector wage issues. The Ministry of Labour Relations and Manpower has taken this decision after considering submissions made by the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) recently.
This was disclosed by the EFC Chairman Kumar Jayasuriya when he addressed its 80th AGM in Colombo on Thursday. He was unanimously re-elected as the Chairman for a second term. He noted that the decision to revise private sector salaries through the Wages Boards mechanism was a positive indication to employers that the government will not intervene in legislating mandatory wage revisions as was previously done. He revealed that the Ministry has revised minimum wages of 40 Wages Boards and these wages were upwardly revised by 15% to 25%.
The minimum wage in respect of the majority of these Wages Boards, which was Rs. 5,000 was revised to Rs. 5,750 with effect from July 2008, he said. Mr Jayasuriya noted that the Federation was successful in negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the plantation unions covering estate workers which also included the payment of a productivity incentive in the wage package which was Rs.290 per day has been revisedto Rs. 405 per day. The productivity incentive which enables a worker to earn Rs.30 a day is a landmark in the history of collective bargaining in the plantation industry, he said. 45 Collective Agreements were signed between members of the Employers Federation and trade unions under the auspices of the Federation in 2008.
The Federation has made comprehensive submissions to the government stating that the current labour regulatory frame work in Sri Lanka is an impediment to business in a highly competitive global market. Mr Jayasuriya said that the country cannot afford the delay in synchronizing the labour law regime with the economic environment. The latest edition of “Doing Business 2009”published by the World Bank ranks Sri Lanka 110 out of 181 economies in relation to employing workers.
Sri Lanka also comes within 10 countries with the highest costs in relation to termination of employment. He said that Sri Lanka needs to have a labour relations framework which will create an enabling environment for employers to make the required changes quickly in order to survive in business. |
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