On 27 May 2021 the government of Sri Lanka issued a decree making it almost impossible for 12,000 village government officers to strike and stripped hundreds of thousands of other public sector workers of their basic rights. The decree was a response to a threatened strike by the government officers who were demanding COVID-19 vaccinations. The decree claimed that the government services and departments under the strike ban were “essential” in the “face of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The union, representing village workers, immediately called off the impending industrial action.
Five days later, on 2 June, the government issued a second decree on the eve of a threatened walkout by workers at many major hospitals. It extended the ban on strikes to health care and other government workers.
The two decrees cover port, railway, bus transport, petroleum, gas, state bank and insurance workers; nurses, doctors and other health care workers; government administration workers and workers at state-owned food distribution companies; and employees of Sri Lanka’s nine provincial councils.
Workers who defy the strike ban can be fired. They also face fines of between 2,000 and 5,000 rupees, “rigorous imprisonment” of two to five years, the seizure of their “movable and immoveable property” and the removal of their professional credentials.
Any individual who seeks to “incite, induce or encourage” someone subject to the strike ban to not attend work, whether through a “physical act or by any speech or writing,” is likewise liable to fines, property seizures and jail terms of up to five years.
