Video: Manpower workers to get rights soon

14 June 2014 04:10 am Views - 3801

The government plans to enact new laws to ensure the safety and rights of workers employed by manpower companies, Minister Gamini Lokuge said.

Mr. Lokuge, who is Minister of Labour and Labour Relations, said such companies were set up to provide man power to companies as contingency when they faced difficulties in continuing the production line or work shift due to an absence of staff.

“These manpower companies were created to provide workers to companies when in need of employees to continue the production line or the work shift. But today we see some companies functioning almost entirely on the work provided by these manpower companies. Even government institutions like the Central Bank, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the other state banks employ manpower,” Mr. Lokuge said.

He added that none of the manpower companies were registered and there was no way to obtain information as to whether their employees were receiving EPF, gratuity payments or whether they got compensation when interdicted.

He said the ministry would implement new laws to ensure the safety of manpower company employees. “We will draft a bill in this regard and present it to parliament after putting it to the trade union advisory committee for discussion,” Mr. Lokuge said.(Indika Sri Aravinda & Ajith Siriwardana)
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