Last week it was announced that 18,000 Executive Grade public servants in 18 Grades will launch trade union action today (24th Monday). According to some media reports, there were 22 strikes in 2022 and it destroyed over 17,000 human days. The number of employees who took part in those strikes is over 5500. Do we push our country forward or dragging backward ? This is the big question that we need to ask from ourselves.
In 2019 there were 18 strikes in the private and semi government sector and nearly 7000 employees had taken part in those strikes. The number of human days lost is nearly 55,000. Some time ago it was revealed that there are 100,000 public servants in Sri Lanka without specific duties.
It is very pathetic to see how trade unionists proudly said that they caused a loss of one billion rupees to the harbour during their token strike launched on March 01st in 2023. No genuine Sri Lankan who is a legitimate son or daughter of mother Lanka can be proud of causing a loss of one billion rupees within one day for the motherland and for the entire populartion because it is innocent poor people who lost money and re-pay. Only devils or inhuman creatures can be proud of such an act. Therefore ordinary Sri Lankan people should understand the real characteristics of protestors and trade unionists that cause any type of damage to the country and the people.
They never expect the well-being of their people or the motherland. They only need to ensure the destruction of the country and the people and ensure their well-being and the well being of their families. All trade unionists lead luxury lives with all comforts.
Usually the people of Sri Lanka are well aware of the public service of this country and plan their day to day life whenever a strike announced by a trade union in the transport sector, health sector, banking sector, etc. But they cannot plan their day when they realise that there is a strike after arriving at the station to catch the train. Poor people do not have money to hire a cab to reach their destinations.
Can a country walk forward with this type of trade unions ? Sri Lanka will never be able to become a developed country with this type of trade unions which always pull the country backwards due to the benefits they receive. One thing should be done for sure. That is investigating bank accounts of those trade unionists and their immediate family members. A lot more can be found out by doing so.
It is hilarious when we compare the salaries of engineers and Consultant/MBBS doctors. There is a huge difference in their salaries. But both parties receive free education and serve the Sri Lankan people. Engineers attached to certain state institutions receive a monthly salary roughly around one million rupees but a Consultant doctor with 30 or more years of experience only receives a salary of two hundred thousand rupees. This is a very pathetic and at the same time hilarious situation.
The responsible authorities should solve this issue going beyond existing rules and regulations. According to one common law, salaries of people cannot be reduced on any grounds. But this law needs to be amended as soon as possible in order to solve this burning issue and disparities. Now we can very clearly see how our country becomes poor day by day while a handful of people are getting richer and richer day by day.
Any member of the current Parliament in any political party can forward a private proposal ensbling reducing ecisying salaries of executive grades in the public service. This country can witness who is actually interested in reducing the sufferings of the people and who is not interested in it at all. Presenting or not presenting this simple private proposal will tell the entire story to the country. It will be a good sign for the voters to decide to whom they should vote in future Elections.
Employees, especially the officials attached to certain state institutions get several huge bonuses in addition to their monthly salaries. Sometimes the average salaries of lower grade employees of those institutions exceed one hundred thousand rupees. They just do simple tasks such as reading metres etc. But they get over one lakh of salaries. This is in addition to the several huge bonuses they receive annually. Usually all over the world bonuses are paid only when companies earn profits. But here in Sri Lanka bonuses are paid by obtaining bank loans !
The problem is the innocent poor people of this country pay them while undergoing all their harassment. They harass people in several ways. They harass people verbally while doing their duties. They harass people while launching strikes to get higher salaries. All the time it is innocent poor people who suffer without any protest. In one way this shows the stupidity and low education level of the Sri Lankan people no matter what the current literacy rate is.
The other most important factor is the conduct of the trade unions in essential services in the country. No way of prioritising the rights of trade unions, labourers and workers than the rights of the people, the public. First place should be given to protecting the rights of the people and only then comes the rights of all the others. When considering this, we can very clearly see that no Government should give into the demands of the trade unions which violates the rights of the people. Priority should be given to protect the human rights of the people.
When observing the behaviour of certain trade unions and trade unionists, the people say their bank accounts and the bank accounts of their immediate family members should be investigated by the Government. They say this because many of those trade unionists do not work and there are no visible income generating avenues for them. But people have witnessed that they and their immediate family members live luxury lives. The people have observed that they have meals from five star hotels and their immediate family members receive education abroad in private universities and other higher educational institutions which charge millions of rupees per term. An ordinary trade unionist cannot afford such things, the people say.
It is the people of this country who are responsible for the downfall of Sri Lanka. They did not do their duty and that is why Sri Lanka stands here today. At least now the people should be a little bit more vigilant on everything around them such as trade unions, other state and private organisations etc. If people keep mum, the trade unions will never let Sri Lanka to stand up again. They will continue to drag the country further down day by day organizing one strike after another. Unfortunately all who step into a state university even to avoid rain get infected with this `deadly virus’ of `trade unionism’.
According to the Sri Lankan Labour Laws, Rules and Regulations (Trade Union Ordinance, 1959), the state (public) sector trade union leaders can stay at home, do their private work or do some other job or two and receive their full salary. The relevant rules and regulations release them from all their official duties to do `trade union work’. But in real work, they stay at home or do their private work and receive their monthly salary without any problem. The worst part is many of them do some other jobs and get two or more salaries. This is the reality in this country which exists during the past several decades after Independence.
Any public servant who can get 1000 signatures of fellow public servants (his/her friends) can register his/her `trade union’ and enjoy this priceless privilege. No matter whether those who signed are still in the service or not or whether they are actually in that specific trade union as members, the leader of the `union’ can stay at home and get paid.
People of this country do not know whether to cry or laugh when it comes to the style of public service. Although various trade unions in the public sector said so and demanded various things, how young female graduates join the public service work tells the story. They get the job, get married and become pregnant. Then they stay at home with the full salary for four long months (84 working days). Then they come to work and get two hours per day for one year to feed the baby. Then they obtain the distress loan and all the other benefits available to them. They spend four hours from their eight hour duty everyday to get late to report for duty, lunch, morning and evening tea, make-up, shopping, to pick children up after school, take them to the tuition class etc and work only four hours. Then they go on maternity leave for the second, third or maybe for the fourth time and continue the circle described above ! There is no point in talking about male public servants. God save Sri Lankan people !
