Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) criticised the new labour law reforms that were introduced by the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, charging that the Government was working to appease international organisations while jeopardising the well-being of the citizens.

Speaking to the media yesterday (16), NPP Opposition Parliamentarian Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said that the Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, in introducing labour law reforms, has purposely focused only on the expectations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, but not on the expectations of the working class in the country.

Amarasuriya charged that the new labour law reforms had drafted it in line with the illusionary concept of a “free economic individual” who can directly deal with the employer. “Those people who drafted these laws were in a neo-liberal illusionary world. They might have thought that there are free economic individuals in Sri Lanka like in the Western world, which is an illusion,” she opined.

Amarasuriya claimed that the ill effects of the new laws have been covered up with beautiful words like ‘gender equality’. She also said that the danger coming with the implementation of this new legal framework is hidden under the guise of these decorative words excerpted from western concepts.

“These people have used a very decorative set of words which is very useful to hide the reality from the public. We know that the IMF and the World Bank focused more on the female workforce, and they are constantly saying that the female workforce in Sri Lanka is relatively lower than the other countries. So, we have no problem with this. But the problem we have is with the way they are going to do it,” she said.

Amarasuriya also said that these new labour laws are a weapon used by the Government to curtail the rights of the people and those employed, by making other external parties, especially the employers happy. Several opposition parties had raised concerns about the impact of the new labour laws on trade union movements.  

Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara was not available for comment regarding the allegations made by the NPP Member of Parliament.