A team of US government officials headed by assistant trade representative Michael Delaney is scheduled to arrive in Colombo on Sunday and meet members of the Sri Lankan government, private and public sector employers and trade unions on Monday and Tuesdy to discuss workers’ rights in this country. The delegation’s visit is in response to an appeal by one of America’s largest association of trade unions, alleging that Sri Lanka did not comply with international labour norms and therefore US trade concessions to it should be stopped.
Labour Ministry Secretary Mahinda Madihewa told The Sunday Times that a three-member committee comprising External Affairs Secretary Romesh Jayasinghe, Thilak Collure and himself had been set up to hold discussions with the US delegation. According to Mr Madihewa, this inter-ministerial committee would brief the American team this week about the Sri Lankan government’s position on labour issues. “We are comfortable with this visit since the workers’ rights and well-being are far better off when compared with other countries that currently enjoy the US GSP tax concessions,” Mr. Madihewa said. The issue was also taken up at the last meeting of the National Labour Advisory Council held in Colombo two weeks ago, he added.
The delegation led by the Assistant Trade Representative for South Asia, Michael. J. Delaney will arrive in the country today and hold extensive talks with senior government officials, industrialists, trade unionists and others related to the export sector, an official with the US Embassy in Colombo said. At least five different trade unions are set to hold talks with the visiting delegation at the US Embassy at separate allocated times, he said.
Last month the US government had announced it had received a petition filed by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) which called for Sri Lanka’s removal from the list of beneficiaries from the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme. Sri Lanka is the 14th largest user of the US GSP programme among developing countries and according to US government, it “benefitted by an approximately $116 million worth of goods” under the US GSP system in 2009.
The AFL-CIO petition is understood to have been formed on the basis of feedback from at least seven Sri Lankan trade unions. Although the AFL-CIO had resubmitted its petition on Sri Lanka to the US government in December last year after two earlier submissions since June 2008, Washington was seen to be acting on the appeal only recently. According to diplomatic sources in Colombo, the US government considered accepting the petition this year because it focused exclusively on labour rights. Earlier petitions had mentioned human rights issues such as child soldiers as well.
The American President is mandated by the US Congress to review the GSP programme on a yearly basis and the American public can make submissions in this regard. In its latest petition, the AFL-CIO said, “the Government of Sri Lanka is not taking steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights including the right of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, freedom from compulsory labour, a minimum age for the employment of children and acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work and occupational safety and health.”
According to the AFL-CIO appeal, Sri Lankan trade unions were most concerned by deficiencies in this country’s labour laws. Sections of the Trade Union Ordinance, Industrial Disputes Act and Factories Ordinance were cited in the AFL-CIO appeal as areas of key concern requiring immediate changes. “Internationally recognized worker rights continue to be routinely violated in the Export Processing Zones of Sri Lanka,” the AFL-CIO said in its detailed petition.
“We were forced to raise the issue at the AFL-CIO because labour rights are under threat in Sri Lanka,” Anton Marcus, general secretary, Free Trade Zone Workers’ Union told Sunday Times last week. Mr Marcus says the trade unions are willing to work with the Sri Lankan government to address the issues but at the same time he fears that public and private sector employers may influence the government otherwise.
The US government is also expected to hold a public hearing on the subject in Washington DC on August 11. It is not clear yet whether members of Sri Lanka’s inter-ministerial committee would send its representatives to the hearing or would have Sri Lankan ambassador to the US, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, appear on Colombo’s behalf. Sources in Sri Lanka’s Labour Ministry indicate that given the legal and technical aspects of the issues involved, it is likely that Sri Lankan government representatives would be sent from Colombo.
At a press conference at the American Centre in Colombo on July 21, the US junior assistant secretary of state Robert Blake had said the US GSP would “remain in effect for Sri Lanka,” while the American process of looking into workers’ rights was under way. Analysts suggest any future suspension of US GSP to Sri Lanka is likely to affect only a small percentage of the overall bilateral trade because garments and textiles which comprise 79 per cent of Sri Lankan exports to the US are outside the realm of the GSP programme. However, the larger issue at stake is perhaps of a diplomatic nature especially since European Union’s suspension of GSP to Sri Lanka comes into effect in two weeks.
Anton Marcus with the Free Trade Zone and General Services Union warned that the Government was taking matters lying down anticipating to convince the US delegation with more false promises as they have done in the past. “This time it will not work since we have compiled a comprehensive dossier which will force the Government to have a re-think on their current position taken towards the workers’ rights if it does not want to face a similar crisis like the European Union (EU) issue”, Mr. Marcus said. |
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