Sri Lanka to set up national level Trade Union Advisory Committee

Oct 13, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has given his consent to appoint a national level Trade Union Advisory Committee under his supervision. The committee will be headed by the secretary to the President and the relevant ministers, President's Media said. The President has given his consent during a meeting with the representatives of Trade Union Federation for a Just Society, at the President’s official residence yesterday. The President was presented a document of proposals by the union representatives. The proposals included the establishment of an independent Public Service Commissions and other independent commissions, re-organization of Salary & Wages Commission, rectifying the anomalies in the Agrahara Insurance scheme, hike in salary increments, solving of transport issues and providing of motor bikes to all public servants. The representatives of the unions drew the President’s attention to the need for appointing of a high level committee to enhance the productivity of the public service. Several demands such as the addition of 10,000 rupees allowance to the basic salary, assurance of equal representation for state and private sectors in the National Labour Advisory Council, job permanency for ‘Manpower’ workers serving in Telecom and other semi- government organizations and getting the parliamentary approval for the salary increase of 2,500 rupees for the private sector employees, were also discussed during this meeting.