By Prof. Rasheen Bappu Courtesy Ceylon Today

Approximately, 2,074 registered trade unions are in Sri Lanka, of which 54.5 per cent are in the public sector, 27.5 per cent in public corporations and 18 per cent in the private sector. The number of members covered by the trade unions amounts to 9.5 per cent of the total workforce of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Constitution grants a fundamental right for every person to join a trade union, while the Trade Union Ordinance permits any seven people to form such an organisation.

As per International Labour Organization (ILO)on trade unions; Article 1[1] For the purpose of the application of this Law, the following terms and expressions shall have the meanings assigned against each: Trade Unions: An organisation that is established as per the articles of this law by a number of workers in a specific organisation, specific sector or specific activity.

Illegal trade union actions

Trade union actions highly affect the economy of any country. Therefore, some unfair trade union actions are prohibited by Law. Labour Laws of Sri Lanka have cited some situations where trade union actions are illegal. Some of those are mentioned below; According to Section 32 of the Industrial Disputes Act, it is illegal to commence, continue, or participate in, or do any act in furtherance of, any strike in connection with any industrial disputes in any essential industry which is declared by the Minister of Labour without giving prior notice of at least 21 days before the commencement of the strike. According to section 40 of the Industrial Disputes Act, it is a punishable offence to commence, continue and participate in or to any act in furtherance of a lock-out or strike in any industry after an industrial dispute has been referred for the settlement to an Industrial Court or settlement by Arbitration.

It is a punishable offence to challenge any award given by such Court or Arbitrator or to change or cancel or alter the terms in a collective agreement or any strike in breach of a collective agreement. Also, according to Section 40 of the Industrial disputes act, it is a punishable offence to commence, continue, participate in, or do any act in furtherance of a strike while pending a settlement by an Industrial Court or by an Arbitrator in breach of a collective agreement. Amerasinghe (2009) emphasised that the Courts upheld the right to strike in the private sector of Sri Lanka only subject to the restrictions in the Industrial Disputes Act.

Trade Unions as political actors

Modern trade unions act in two arenas: the State and politics on the one hand, and the labour market and collective bargaining on the other. The relative importance of their economic and political activities differs between countries and world regions, as well as historically and between types of unions. So do the way and the extent to which union action in the two arenas is coordinated. Most unions no longer claimed a right or reserved the option to overthrow the Government of the State through a political strike. In this, they paid tribute to the superior legitimacy of free elections, as compared to the ‘direct action’ of the organised working class. Today, more or less explicit constitutional law makes it illegal for unions in most liberal democracies to call a strike in order to put pressure on the elected Parliament, and most trade unions have accepted this as legitimate. In return, liberal democratic States allow unions within the limits of usually complex legal rules to strike in the context of disputes with employers and in pursuit of collective agreements on wages and working conditions.

As political actors within the constitutional framework of liberal democracy trade unions can use various channels of influence. The most important of these are still unions’ traditional relations with political parties. In all democratic countries unions are in some form of alliance with a major political party.

Unions in the political process

Trade unions may achieve political influence by converting ‘industrial’ into political power. Political exchange of this sort occurs where centralised unions command strong bargaining power; where the outcomes of collective bargaining are decisive for macroeconomic performance, in particular with respect to monetary stability and employment; and where the political survival of the government depends on such performance. Also, unions may insert themselves in the political process through privileged links with an allied political party, which may enable them to achieve their industrial objectives more effectively and efficiently through political instead of industrial means.

With the dawn of the millennium, most State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private sector organisations inherited modern employee welfare activities and modern human resource development concepts. The whole process of recruitment, training, remuneration, promotion and transfers are all done to a written code of ethics. If any queries or ‘bubble out’occurred, they were solved in the best possible ways without affecting the employees, therefore employees begin to think thata union is not needed.

The last nail in the coffin was the politicisation of the trade unions. All the political parties started unions. This resulted in a split among the employees. The noble concepts of the unions are blown away and they have been cited as the places to sell political propaganda.

However, the truth is that even though is lost, still the need for the union does exist, as the employees need backup against any false charge and for disciplinary actions. Still, the unions are for the employees to protect them from injustice, for high payee taxes, salary hikes to match the cost of living and for rights like pensions and provident funds.

Disruption and Sabotage of essential services

But, It is imperative to see trade unions in Sri Lanka over a period of time have taken citizens as a shield and for ransom to fulfil their political agenda. They have put the citizens in discomfort in the form of disruption and sabotage of essential services like health, water, electricity, food, etc. Further, trade unions have created disruptions against restructuring SOEs without considering the macro benefits Sri Lanka could have for the future generation.

Disruptions in the essential supply of fuel, electricity and water will no doubt have a direct impact on the day-to-day functions of industries and the livelihood of citizens. Further, this will give a negative signal to foreign investors and tourists who are already in the country and who intend to visit Sri Lanka as an unsafe place to spend their stay and money. These are aspects which we cannot compromise when we are in an economic crisis.

It is by and large a major threat toNational Security, whichhas a Militarydimension and a Non-Militarydimension. Therefore, considering the seriousness of essentials needed for citizens, the Non-military dimensional componentis considered as health, food, energy, communication security etc., The government is solely responsible for its citizens to ensure an uninterrupted supply by any means. Therefore,the government will have to use its full potential in exercising the law andorder to ensure a smooth supply of essentials in order to keep the country alive.

Conclusion

Countering threats on Citizens, National security, whether it is military or non-military should be the sole responsibility of the government to take prompt action. This applies to successive governments, too. Further, Human rights activists should support what is right always, keeping in mind the larger picture for the benefit of Citizens in Sri Lanka.

Prof.Rasheen Bappu, Anthropologist with security studies insights and Intelligence data scientist expressed his views in a forum

By Prof. Rasheen Bappu