Liberalization Of The Labor Market: Is The End Of Permanent Employment?
Sumanasiri Liyanage
How do the three main parties in Sri Lanka, United National Front for Good Governance, United Peoples Freedom Front and the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna respond to the increasing demand made by the international financial agencies for labor market liberalization? Do these parties address this issue?
Last weekend I attended two meetings. While the first is organized by the people working on the Free Trade Zone, the second is a meeting of the office-bearers of branch unions of the CMU. The principal focus of the both meetings was manpower agencies and the labor market. The second meeting was more focused as its organizers opted for the title, “Is it the end of permanent employment?” In fact, I borrowed the phrase used by the General Secretary of the CMU, Comrade Sylvester Jayakody’s apt phrase, “manpower contagion” as part of the title of this article.
I have no idea when the manpower agencies entered the Sri Lankan labor market. When Mahaweli Development Project was underway, private agencies entered as intermediaries in bridging the demand for and supply of labor for various project sites. Individual intermediaries also facilitated in finding domestic helpers. Foreign employment agencies have proliferated since the beginning of the outflow of labor first to the countries of West Asia and later to other emerging economies. As far as I know, a very limited studies were done on the subject of the role of these intermediaries. According to the data I possess, these agencies usually charge from the organization that demand labor once and for all payment. When the workers were transferred to said employer, the role of the intermediaries usually comes to an end. The responsibility of the employee would be shifted to the new employer. The manpower agencies are different as they leave the employee rather ‘undefined’ the issue to which I will turn shortly.
There is another novel element. In the past, this service of intermediaries was used only by the private sector. Today, many government and semi-government agencies have also used manpower agencies in meeting the labor demand of those organizations. Lake House, Sri Lanka Telecom has been widely using manpower agencies in ‘recruiting’ people. National Savings Bank once hired around 500 people through manpower agencies. Manpower agencies were very much present in the Free Trade Zones and also in many private sector companies. Comrade Jayakody used the word ‘contagion’ primarily because of the increasing presence of the manpower agencies in the Sri Lankan labor market. The degree of extensity and velocity of the presence of manpower agencies appear to be phenomenal. Read More
