ORGANISATION OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Permit for transportation of cow and goat hide

Questions and Answers

Question: Those engaged in the manufacture of tom tom, raban, dolak are finding it difficult to engage in their industry and thrown out of employment. They are unable to earn a living because they are unable to get the required hide (goat leather).

Hide is transported from Colombo to the industrialists spread throughout the island. Weligama is one of the famous places where these music items from the hides of goats and cows are manufactured.

Earlier the small time dealers supply goat hides to the Weligama industrialists and now the Weligama men are jobless for want of hide.

I was engaged in supplying hide but now I am not supplying because I can't transport hide by bus as the law enforcing officers request for permit for transporting. But I do not know which authority is responsible to issue permits to transport hide. Will the OPA kindly advise me to resume my employment?

Naieem, Colombo 12.

Answer: The requirement for transportation of hide is almost the same as applicable for the transportation of life cows and goats. It is usually a letter from the Grama Sevaka Niladhari and the Government Agent.

In your case it is not practical to get a letter from the Government Agent as it involves many of them from Colombo to Weligama including the Government Agents of the areas through which you will be transporting.

The available practical option for you is to obtain a permit from the Ministry of Industries for which you have to register your industry with this ministry. This is the procedure followed by tanneries and manufactures of leather based industries such as shoes and slippers.

You have to register your industry as a supplier to the industries you have indicated. This Ministry is now referred to as the Ministry of Industrial Development and is situated at 73/1, Galle Road, Colombo 3.

Pension for private school teachers

Question: I am a teacher of a private school in Colombo and I have 21 years of teaching experience. I want to know how I can get my pension number? What is the procedure to get this number? Some say that we can get pension after 10 years of teaching experience. Is that true?

Miss S. Arsecularatne, -a charm777@yahoo.com

Answer: You have not stated as to which private school in Colombo that you served. Teachers of all private schools are not entitled to a pension but only those from government assisted private schools are entitled.

Further since it is a contributory pension scheme, your school should have contributed towards your pension also deducting your share of the contribution. If the answer to this is yes, then you have to obtain all particulars and the proof of contribution from the school and take your case up with the Zonal Education Office in Colombo. (It is at Vithanage Mawatha, Colombo 2, near the Nawaloka Hospital).

Gratuity payment liability

Question: We are a company not exceeding 10 employees since inception. One of our employees left our service after being with us for six years. He gave notice of one month though his appointment letter accepted by him specifies three months notice or in lieu of notice pay back equal amount as per his salary.

We ignored his letter or resignation and he left our service after one month and has not reported for duty for the last three months. Is there any liability towards him on our part and if so what are they had now would you advise us on this matter.

Sunil Guruge, prtotech@sltnet.lk

Answer: Even if your company has employees not exceeding 10, you have to contribute including the employees share deducted from their salary and remit the EPF and ETF contribution.

Assuming that you would have done so you legally owe to this employee who was in your service for six years, the EPF, ETF and the gratuity payment. For the six years service his due as gratuity is three months salary. Now the fact that he did not give three months notice does not allow you to deduct or deprive him of his dues.

You do not practically have a hold on this employee for not having given the three months notice as per the letter of appointment. You can only file a civil case to recover any loss to your business on account of his having vacated post without giving the agreed notice. For any further clarification contact the Labour Office in your area.

Commanding respect and building social harmony

Address by Elmore Perera at the 18th Annual Sessions of the OPA in 2005 Continued from last week

“The stark reality of the fierce competition amongst senior lawyers to defend rich and powerful individuals or institutions, who invariably use ill-gotten or even State funds to obtain their services, is so frightening that lesser mortals are hard put to it to even obtain evidence of well-known and often incontrovertible facts.

“Another area in which there is, what has now come to be described as ‘transparent corruption’ is the plunder of private land and property by the fabrication of false deeds, the falsity of which is almost impossible to prove, by the seemingly lawful tactics of discrediting any witness who dares to testify to the truth.

I have first hand experience of courts where the lawyers have arrogated to themselves the right to decide how title to land should be determined by purported settlement. In another case, action has been instituted claiming damages of Rs. 60 million against a citizen who had the temerity to exercise his right to file a Caveat in the Land Registry.

“As recently as last week the Ethics Committee of the Bar Association, of which I am a member, inquired into a complaint of patently unethical conduct of a lawyer who had been charged for theft more than 5 years ago.

The complainant, a Company Director, who witnessed the theft, and informed the police who, within minutes found the stolen goods in the lawyer’s house and charged the lawyer in courts. Ever since the complainant gave evidence in courts, the accused lawyer, ably aided by other lawyers, have terrorised the complainant, both within the courts and outside and have got the case dragged on for 5 years.

Very senior lawyers have agreed to appear for the accused lawyer even in the Ethics Committee inquiry.

“The conclusion is irresistible that, even though the large majority of lawyers may be quietly endeavouring to promote societal harmony, the contemptible acts of a few perpetrators of gross injustice have tarnished the image of the black-coated gentry and given a very hollow ring to our claim to be a noble profession. Quo Vadis Nobility?

“Justice delayed is unquestionably Justice denied. At the present moment I am engaged, inter alia, in two Partition Cases, one instituted in 1973 and the other in 1975.

“Not infrequently, when a case is called in Court, a lawyer informs court that he has not received ‘instructions’ and seeks a postponement. I once asked Mr. Walter Laduwahetty former Judge and Principal of Law College if he had experienced this and if so what he understood from it. His prompt reply was “Of course! It only means, I have not received my fees”.

“The temptation is to take the easy way out of smiling at the plight of others and sweeping it under the carpet.

“In the name of CIMOGG, the Citizen’s Movement for Good Governance, I have already filed more than 30 Public Interest cases. Incidentally I filed one on behalf of the OPA prior to my sabbatical leave.

“Opposition to Public Interest Litigation has surprisingly surfaced from the most unexpected quarter viz. the Attorney General’s Department. I had the occasion to come down very hard on a young State Counsel who described CIMOGG as ‘busy bodies’, without locus standi. Perhaps because the bench agreed with me, the insinuation was hurriedly withdrawn with profuse apologies.

“Can we, professionals, continue to bask, or wallow, in the relative security we enjoy? We owe it to our society (that has made us what we are), to act before it is too late.

“Isn’t it time for some concerted action?