‘Strike pay’ has come home to roost

Critics of the government are very fond of comparing its performance with that of the once war-torn Vietnam and natural disaster-prone Bangladesh once in an impoverished state. They also often seek to compare with Singapore or Malaysia, forgetting or ignoring the basic element of controlled dictatorship or somewhat iron-fisted rule which facilitated discipline and rule of law in these countries. Neither in these two countries or Vietnam and Bangladesh was found established and organized labour as found in little Sri Lanka. There is industrial peace and continuity of essential services. That accounts for the fast developing FDIs in these places and their economic recovery. The Left Movement in Sri Lanka gradually, step by step inveigled their way into the fabric of labour control and administration very cunningly and systematically harmonizing and legalising the processes through legislation introduced by friendly

governments with a heavy political bias, putting in place Wages Boards, Commissions, Labour Tribunals, Collective Agreements, Industrial Courts and a host of ancillary measure to consolidate conditions and management of labour. The patronizing support lent by political parties, including Parliamentary backing, has made respective trade unions to be beholden to their political God-fathers so much so that over the years they have become appendages of political parties which tend to use them through union leaders who are mostly party activists for political ends. The strength of union activity has been accentuated by the network being expanded through federations and associations which, mostly unknown to the membership, are simply through animal instinct dragged into struggles which sometimes have nothing to do with their own working conditions.

Strike Pay: As a godsend, unions have graduated to the level of receiving salaries/wages during strike periods as a matter of course! Indeed, strikers do not feel the pinch of keeping away from work and their leave entitlement too is not affected at all. So, for all purposes, successive governments have asked for trouble. As long as this situation exists there could be no hope for smooth governance and its concomitant, labour peace. Remove these self-inflicted “Illegal bonuses” which serve more as an incentive to strike for prolonged periods and the dismantling of political and other strengths in trade unions could be capable of being witnessed in no time. There is no right, human or otherwise, attached to payment while on strike. Hence, there could be no complaints at Geneva or internationally. The United Nations has not given its blessings either.

The right to strike will not be taken away but employees will always think twice before they leap. The entire responsibility to sustain strikers has to fall into the lap of respective unions through special funds set up for the purpose, the current facility is damn stupid. The incongruence and absurdity of the whole exercise can be seen when one considers for instance the Health sector where the strikers are paid their wages and leave entitlements insured the cost of which is happily met by the tax-payer through direct and indirect taxation and the victims themselves complaining against the inconvenience experienced and the additional expense incurred when they are at the receiving end of the union action which the people themselves are in fact funding! Despite the backlash that can be expected on a reversal of this process, it is worth attempting to withdraw wage payment during strikes and have leave entitlements set off against the period of the strike and any balance to be on no-pay. Desperate situations need desperate remedies. The time has come for meaningful action- the only way forward.

Concerned Citizen