New committee to look into recruitment agencies charging exorbitant amounts

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama   

A committee will be appointed to look into the complaints regarding the recruitment agencies charging exorbitant amounts from Sri Lankan workers going to Poland, Israel and Romania, Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva yesterday said.   

This was decided during a discussion held at the Labour Ministry with the participation of Foreign Employment Promotion and Market Diversification State Minister Priyankara Jayarathne, officials of the Ministry and the State Ministry including Secretaries, Foreign Employment Bureau Chairman and other officials and the representatives of agencies that sent Sri Lankan workers to Poland, Israel and Romania.   

Minister de Silva said, the agencies had charged Rs. 757,000 from each worker going to Poland, Rs. 450,000 for Romania and more than Rs. one million from Sri Lankan workers before sending them for employment opportunities in Israel.   

He said the Foreign Employment Bureau had also given approvals for the agencies to obtain certain fixed charges from the workers and said this practice was unreasonable.   
According to the agreements signed with the International Labour Organization (ILO), he said levying any charges other than the expenses was prohibited.   

He also said following a recent agreement signed with Israel, the Sri Lankan Government mentioned that no agency can charge money, other than the expenses, from Sri Lankan workers.   

Therefore, the Minister had decided to appoint a committee to draft criteria regarding the agencies obtaining money from Sri Lankan workers.   

The committee will decide the appropriate charges which should be acquired from the workers, he said.