COYLE discusses labour reforms with Manusha

From left: Lasith Senanayake from COYLE, COYLE Chairman Rasith Wickremasinghe, Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara, Commissioner General of Labour B.K. Prabath Keerthi and Advisor cum Private Secretary to Minister Shan Yahampath 

The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) held a crucial meeting at the Labour Department with Labour Minister Manusha Nanayakkara, Commissioner General of Labour B.K. Prabath Chandrakeerthi, Advisor cum Private Secretary to Minister Shan Yahampath and other ministry officials, to address the need for important labour reforms. 

The primary focus of the meeting was to advocate for progressive labour regulations that will help to ensure a safe and conducive working environment for employees, complemented by a well-designed safety net post-employment. 

The meeting concluded on a very positive note, with the department officials and the COYLE in agreement to cooperate with each other to venture into further possibilities of reviewing reforms to help develop a larger economy in Sri Lanka, thereby creating a large pool of jobs. 

The post-pandemic situation as well as economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka has resulted in the much observed brain drain that is occurring. The COYLE believes this can only be prevented in the future years by ensuring that our economy has a significant increase in the number of private sector institutions capable of delivering sufficient wages to its workforce. 

The public sector has been burdened and rendered inefficient, due to the large redundant workforce that has been bought on to its payroll by politically-motivated decisions made by all governments during the past decades. This crisis should be the final catalyst for shifting the thought mechanism of burdening the public sector with short-term decision-making for political mileage to developing the private sector to amass a larger job pool and more career building opportunities as all developed countries. 

The COYLE will be working closely with the ministry, with the view of progressive reforms that remove the conflictive culture that currently exists between the Labour Department and employer, in order to put forth mechanisms that provide a fair safety net for employees whilst ensuring a more progressive legislation, which will not deter investors away from Sri Lanka.