The hard-line stand taken by the management of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) in refusing to reinstate 60 employees who engaged in a three-day protest causing inconvenience to the public and losses running into millions of rupees to the public utility is indeed the right step, which, hopefully, will be pursued by other public sector bodies, if we are to put an end to the menace of protests and strikes which have now become all too frequent. Unlike most other Ministers and politicians who were reluctant to be strict with the powerful trade unions, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara has stuck to his guns in this instance.
Now that this decision has been taken, no other politician(s) should intervene to have the employees receive a reprieve. Hitherto, it is the involvement of politicians from all sides to get the errant employees off the hook that emboldened strikers to continue with their work stoppages at the drop of a hat and cause severe hardships to the public. This is because the duty of any State Sector organisation is to first serve the public with whose money they are maintained. Politicians who always intervene to bail out strikers too should bear this in mind.
Recently, there was a spate of strikes by trade unions often for the flimsiest of the reasons where matters could have been easily resolved by discussions with the concerned authorities. Unfortunately, we have had even the so-called educated segments and professionals engaging in strikes to win their demands. For example, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) had been quick to down their stethoscopes to win their demands, placing innocent patients at grave risk – literally. So did university staff and teachers. Three weeks ago we saw nursing staff and minor employees of Government hospitals too going on strike demanding the Rs. 35,000 DAT (Disturbance, Availability and Transport) allowance paid to doctors, trying to elevate themselves to the same level as medical professionals. This is simply untenable.
All this is due to the lax manner in which the authorities have so far dealt with strikes and strikers. In this context, former Finance Minister Dr. N.M. Perera should receive encomiums for not relenting in the face of the bank strike in the early seventies. In the end, the employees themselves were forced to eat humble pie and return to work while those who failed to do so were shown the door without any hesitation. We also recall former President J.R. Jayewardene’s decision to sack most of the July 1980 strikers after giving them due notice to return to work. If this stern decision was not taken, no foreign investors would have come to Sri Lanka to invest in the then newly-established Free Trade Zones (FTZs).
Strikes should always be the last resort. But trade unions in Sri Lanka almost always jump the gun and stop work at the very outset leaving no room for compromise. This is mostly seen where railway employees are concerned, with even foreign tourists becoming victims. This, at a time when tourism is fast recovering from the pandemic and the economic crisis. This steady influx of tourists should not be disrupted in whatever form, lest our foreign visitors decide to look elsewhere. Already much damage has been caused in this respect. It was only recently during a rail strike that a group of forlorn and helpless tourists were caught on television waving their reservations and tickets for the luxury train that was to take them to the Hill Country. In another episode, a lightning strike by the railways staff left a group of tourists stranded on a railway track in some remote backwoods of the country, with no alternative means of transport to get back to Colombo. This, at a time when every effort is being made to revive the tourism industry that is now fast becoming our number one foreign exchange earner, ahead of expatriate remittances.
Needless to say, incidents of this nature can only discourage tourists from getting a look in here. Hence, the need for strong action to combat the strike wave in the country which will not only cause hardship to the Sri Lankan public and foreign visitors, but also deal a body blow to the economy undergoing a revival. Therefore, the measures taken by the CEB management should be emulated by other State entities as well. Sri Lanka certainly is not a rich or developed country that can enjoy the luxury of frequent work stoppages or strikes in this fashion. This should be borne in mind by all concerned and steps taken to remove all obstacles that hinder the country’s growth and progress.
Indeed, industrial peace is sorely needed for any country to prosper. Any perceived lack of industrial peace will deter foreign investors who are being targeted by the Board of Investment (BOI) for various projects in FTZs, Export Processing Zones (EPZ) and industrial parks. As with tourism, we are not the only pebble on the beach. They can choose from our regional competitors such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Laos. Our loss will be their gain. We must always be mindful of this simple fact.
