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Sri Lanka Government Labor Policies
During the nineteenth century, labor legislation dealt with
the large plantations, and more general labor laws were passed
only in the closing years of colonial rule. In 1941 the
government enacted the Wages Boards Ordinance, the first
comprehensive piece of legislation regarding the payment of
wages, the regulation of working hours, and sick and annual
leave; the ordinance also empowered the government to establish
wages boards for any trade. The boards are composed of an equal
number of representatives of workers and employers and three
appointees proposed by the commissioner of labor.
Ordinances of 1942 and 1946 required all factories to be
registered and established minimum standards for health and
safety. The laws also gave the commissioner the right to send
inspectors to the factories and to judge whether a plant was
meeting minimum standards. The Shops and Offices Employees Act of
1954 extended the provisions of the factories legislation to
small shops.
The Maternity Benefits Ordinance, as amended in 1957,
entitled a woman who worked in a factory, mine, or estate to full
compensation for a period of two weeks before her confinement and
for six weeks afterward. The employee must have worked for the
employer 150 days before her confinement to be eligible to
receive the benefits.
The Employees Provident Fund, established in 1958, provided a
national retirement program for the private sector. The Provident
Fund required an employer to contribute 6 percent of total
earnings and an employee to contribute 4 percent of earnings
exclusive of overtime pay. Participation in this plan grew
quickly, and in the 1980s most salaried workers in the formal
sectors of the economy were members. Government employees had
their own pension plans.
Although legislation protecting the health and welfare of
workers was extensive, enforcement was inconsistent. The
government departments charged with enforcement were chronically
underfunded in the late 1980s. Moreover, many labor regulations
were suspended in the investment promotion zones. Most labor
legislation also did not apply to rice farming and other economic
activities carried out informally.
Data as of October 1988
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