Sri Lanka - 2011

Strengthened by the military victory in 2009 over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), President Rajapaksa and his party won the presidential and parliamentary elections in January and April. The main opposition candidate, the former army chief Sarath Fonseka, was arrested two weeks following the presidential election, then condemned to 30 months in jail on corruption charges.

Sri Lanka has been placed under review for abuse of workers rights under the U.S. Generalised System of Preferences. In August 2010, the European Union reacted to human rights violations by partially withdrawing trade benefits previously granted under its generalised system of preferences.

In September, the parliament passed an amendment to the Constitution removing limits to government control over bodies such as the police, the judiciary and the National Human Rights Commission.

The recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of unions for collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
purposes is hindered by excessive delays. Employers try to delay the holding of union elections for as long as possible and use this time to identify, victimise and, very often, fire the union activists concerned. As a result, workers generally refrain from voting, for fear of being identified, and the union fails to secure the number of votes required for it to be recognised. Employers go as far as to change their staffing figures to ensure the 40% representation target (deemed excessive by the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights ) is even harder to reach.

Where an employer refuses to recognise a union for collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
purposes, the union can complain to the Commissioner General of Labour, who organises a referendum at the workplace. There is generally a very long wait, however, before such a referendum is actually held.

Employees’ Councils are promoted by the Board of Investment (BIO) as a substitute for trade unions in the export processing zones (EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. s). Employees’ councils are, however, structures funded by and functioning under the aegis of the employer and can influence workers’ choices much more easily than a union (where the workers elect their leaders and can act independently as the organisation is financed by the dues paid by its members). In some cases, management refuses to recognise an emerging trade union and will “negotiate” directly with the Employees’ Council as if it were the workers’ legitimate representative body. In other cases, it will offer employee council members certain advantages if they do not join a union and threaten them if they do.

EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. employers have so far recognised 134 Employees’ Committees and only 10 trade unions.

Irregularities in the payment of wages in 2009 and 2010 led workers at the Everest Industries bottle cooler factory in the Katunayake EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. to contact the industrial relations industrial relations The individual and collective relations and dealings between workers and employers at the workplace, as well as the institutional interaction between unions, employers and also the government.

See social dialogue department of the Board of Investment (BOI). The BOI advised them to form an Employees’ Committee. At the end of the working day on 23 March, after 10 pm, when the president of the Employees’ Committee was being taken home by the company transport, the vehicle took a different route and left him in an isolated spot. A few minutes later he was attacked by a group of men. He had to be hospitalised for several days.

The workers demonstrated in front of the police station to demand that the aggressors be brought to justice. Everest Industries responded with repression: 90 employees were suspended; 70 of them were later reinstated, some after having been forced to sign a humiliating letter recognising their wrongdoings. Of the 20 other workers suspended, 19 were dismissed. The workers had contacted the Progress Union with a view to forming a genuine trade union at the company, but the project was brought to a halt by the dispute with the management.