administrative arrangement of labour laws for companies. It
is not clear what or who these unions are. Last week, the
financial section of an English weekly carried the unbelievable
headline “Temporary worker layoff provision approved.”
According to
this news item an administrative arrangement has been reached between
trade unions, employers and the government to manage worker layoffs
stemming from the crisis of capitalism. It went onto say that
“On
Wednesday, key government agencies like the finance ministry, the
Central Bank and the ministries of labour and export development met
with 12 leading trade unions and employer representatives, to decide on
labour arrangements to minimise impacts of the global downturn.”
Apparently
Mahinda Madihewa, secretary to the ministry of labour has stated that
the unions agreed to an administrative arrangement of labour laws for companies. It
is not clear what or who these unions are.
Outright sell-out
But the United
Federation of Labour led by Linus Jayathilaka which is closely
associated with the Left Front, has not agreed to any such arrangement
though it was one of the federations that participated in this
discussion.
Also, to the
best of my knowledge, none of the unions that are not associated with
the parties in the ruling alliance has agreed to this outright
sell-out. It is surprising that a top government official has come out
in this manner to propagate government expectations without shame or
dignity.
Only a few
weeks ago the government claimed that the Mahinda Chinthanaya could
protect the Lankan economy from any ill effects of global capitalist
crisis!
In any case the present problem in this country cannot be attributed to the “impact of the global downturn.” Far greater are the problems created by the corrupt and mismanaged development programme of the government and the incredibly wasteful war industry. Except those government sponsored rump unions that have no serious base within the private sector, no union federation within the private sector will commit to such an outright betrayal of workers rights.
Down the throats
Already a group
of private sector federations have come out with a clear denunciation
of the demands made by the employers, and the government tactic of
pushing it down the throats of workers. The government attempt to put
the whole burden of the follies of the government on the workers has
backfired.
Union actions
have been successful in the state sector and state corporation sector.
The recent CEB strike has been an eye opener to all. The electoral
victories of the government have not overwhelmed the union militants or
the workplace leaders.
Even the JVP leaders in workplaces have not been able to frighten the workers by chauvinist dictums. On the contrary, the pressure of the workers is felt by the JVP unions too. The president of the JVP private sector union Vasantha Samarasinghe has said that the government is planning to promulgate a large number of amendments to labour laws which are extremely unjust to private sector employees, including abolishing the eight hour work day and delaying the depositing of EPF and ETF by three months. He has further emphasised that his union will not let these proposals that are jointly initiated by employers and the government to be implemented against private sector employees.
Whether Madihewa likes it or not, workers are still capable of fighting back against any conspiracy to strangle trade union laws. These laws were enacted and implemented in the days in which civil servants were not intimidated to become lap dogs of village humbugs who pretended to be versatile politicians! These lap dogs, though past students of various universities, are not aware of the changes taking place in America and elsewhere. This is one of the biggest tragedies of this country.