How to compensate the students deprived of University education.
Monday, 18 March 2013
Best way to compensate is to list the appeals in each subject stream in the order of merit that is in the order of highest z scores and Island ranks.
Fill the vacancies now available in Sri Lankan universities in the order of Z scores, compensate the victimized students who appealed in the order of merit. Otherwise there will be endless complaints thousands of students, not only it gives a bad reputation to the UGC that gives an adverse image to the government as well.
Don’t the UGC have adequate vision and backbone to take a strait forward decision on compensation of students affected on the basis of order of merit?
This whole issue and irregularities took place due to the fact that merit order was ignored and arbitrary percentages were enforced upon the students without any prior notification before the examinations. At least now they should give chances to highest raking students affected. There are students with Z score above 1.9878 not taken in to any university while below 1.1031 given those places. Please compensate the highest ranking students affected, by giving them the highest priority.
If the there are appeals with high ranks willing to go to peripheries give them the priority regardless of their district, due to the fact that there is reduction of number of students taken from some districts than in the previous years despite overall increase in numbers by over 5000 due to new irregular method. The only way all these problems can be solved now is by filling the vacancies in the order of z score Island ranks
“Net Export Earnings Per Worker” Has Significantly Increased In Apparel Sector
Monday, 18 March 2013 “There was somewhat of a stagnant period in the apparel sector during 2006 and 2010, but now in 2011 and 2012 the apparel sector has shown a significant growth in terms of net export earnings per worker.” observed Dr. Nishan de Mel, Director, Verite Research, addressing a forum organised by the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees' Union (FTZ&GSEU) on “Foreign Investments & Garment Industry; What's Wrong, Where” at the National Library Services Board auditorium, on Thursday, 28 February evening.
Speaking on exports and wage trends in the apparel sector, Dr. de Mel pointed out, the role of Wages Boards constituted by the Ministry of Labour needs to be paid attention to, as “they have not been in tune with the rise of cost of living, the GDP changes etc.” The annual wage increments effected by the Wages Board during 2004 to 2007, Dr. de Mel observed as being mere rupees 25, 35 etc., and termed the increases “useless”. After 2008 he said there was a sudden jump showing annual increases of rupees 150 and 200, again termed “meaningless” in comparison to other economic factors. They have not been timely and have been out of reality was the conclusion, on Wages Board contributions.
Dr. de Mel was of the view that asking for wage increases in relation to rise of cost of living and GDP growth has counter arguments in that, the company owners could always say, they can not respond to issues out of their ambit and they can only afford to consider demands according to what they earn as income or profit. Therefore he proposed, it would be prudent for trade unions to negotiate wage increases in relation to “net export earnings per worker” as that has real content in what the industry earned. As for the apparel sector, the workers thus have a claim to negotiate for increased wages, with the apparel sector doing better in the last two years than they did previously.
Speaking on what he termed, “ground reality”, the Joint Secretary of the FTZ&GSEU, Mr. Anton Marcus said, it is important to question, how the apparel sector increased their incomes, while factories closed down and worker numbers reduced. Mr. Marcus said in year 2000, there were 835 factories that employed 01 million as direct employees. After the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) was terminated in year 2004, he conceded that factories closed down and by 2005 there were around 500 factories operating. It was in 2005 that SL qualified for the EU GSP “Plus”. Now there are only 314 apparel factories employing 283,000 workers. But he said, the income in apparel sector, has almost doubled.
Mr. Marcus attributed two reasons for this increase. One was that the SL apparel industry moved into the more lucrative fashion and designer area that has very high “mark ups” for quality products and two, the forced increase in worker output. He said a “machine operator” who did only a single job and had helpers during the early period of the trade, was made to do many jobs without helpers, with the introduction of “multi skills training”. This was gradually built into a payment scheme that was then linked to targets. With a beggarly monthly wage of rupees 7,900 including a budgetary allowance of rupees 1,000 till last December, the compulsion for overtime, targets and incentives during the whole month led these workers to go along with targets that kept increasing. That is how they earn around rupees 12,000, the company owners claim is a good “take home pay”, said Mr. Marcus.
From the side of the government, the laws were amended to help worker exploitation, charged, Mr. Marcus. The law was then, women workers can not be employed for more than 100 hours of “over time” in an year. This was amended to allow 60 hours of over time per month and also made over time, mandatory. Sri Lanka is the only country where over time is mandatory. “This is forced labour” said Mr, Marcus. This is how in 2009, most in the list of “50 Richest People in Sri Lanka” came from the apparel industry, noted Mr, Anton Marcus.
In the final presentation to the forum on apparel industry and investments, Attorney at Law and Labour Consultant Mr. S.H.A Mohomed said, the apparel sector in Sri Lanka, does contribute to foreign earnings in a big way and even today its contribution is close to 40 per cent. The apparel factories started off with the invitation for foreign investments offered by President Jayawardne in late 1978, he said, when President Jayawardne in fact said, “we don't mind even robber barons, if they come with investments.” Initial investors were from Hong Kong, South Korea and around those countries and were no different. They came here to maximise their profits from the 10 year tax holiday given by the Jayawardne government, along with bank facilities and other concessions on import of raw material for the apparel sector. At the end of their tax holiday, they left Sri Lanka in search of more profitable offers elsewhere, leaving the apparel industry in the hands of those who could use political and personal influence to raise huge bank loans to own factories, said Mr. Mohomed.
He argued, in Sri Lanka, the apparel sector in fact grew with total political patronage and therefore the new rich owners did not have any reason to consider workers as a stakeholder. They financed and funded the two mainstream political parties and powerful regimes and thus could have the ground laid according to their rules. Politics helped them to have labour laws and regulations with safety nets for employment “switched off” said Mr. Mohomed. “This is the most politicised industrial sector in Sri Lanka and the only sector that has no trade unions.” he said, adding that there are only 02 Collective Agreements in the whole sector and that too in two factories owned by the same company. To answer the question, what's wrong and where, Mr. Mohomed said, “until the apparel sector realise they should accept workers as a stakeholder and negotiate, there will be problems stymieing its growth”. They can not go on pretending they are ethical, because we live in a global economy and they have to deal with international suppliers and buyers, Mr. Mohomed concluded.
During the plenary, commenting on the proposition that wages could be discussed in terms of “net export earnings per worker”, Dr. Harsha de Silva, the UNP parliamentarian and economist said, he appreciates this new approach as very pragmatic and could lead to better negotiations. Answering a question from the audience on foreign investments, Mr. Anton Marcus said, in 1984 the laws were amended saying, investors are queueing up and waiting for favourable conditions and even Motorola was said to be waiting to come. But all we got were “quota refugees” who came here in search of US quota that Sri Lanka got and these “quota refugees” went all over Asia looking for such quotas. We have got mostly fake investors who are no businessmen. They don't even have a permanent address, said Mr. Marcus adding that one such company that defaulted and fled, when traced in Seoul, South Korea on the address the BOI had registered it, was only a “barber salon”.
Wrapping up the sessions, journalist and political commentator Mr. Kusal Perera as the session's moderator said, all presentations and the plenary discussion points to the hard fact that the industry needs serious and responsible trade unionism and most importantly, the sector needs serious and responsible investors too. He noted that the purpose of organising this open policy dialogue was to bring together all stakeholders including legislatures for they make policy and law, but the response from the ministry of labour, the BOI and the apparel sector owners had been too little. This topic would need more intellectual social debates and discussions for attitudes to change and policy makers to take note of, Mr. Kusal Perera said, concluding a heavy discourse.
