Trade Unions are once again concerned about the wage increase of the employees of the private sector.

Private Sector Trade Union Collective demands a 25% wage increase for the employees in the private sector. They also want that the salary structure of the employees in the private sector be reviewed and revised.

A conference of all trade unions in the private sector is to be held on April 8th to discuss this issue. Private Sector Trade Union Collective comprises 9 Trade unions in private sector including National Workers Association led by UNP, Free Workers’ Association led by SLFP, CWC, Ceylon Trade Union Federation etc.

Athavudu Senerviratne, Minister of Labour, stated last month that 89% of the Ceylon work force is from the private sector and that around half of them are paid a mere sum of Rupees 3500 as wages. Minister Seneviratne has recommended that the employees in the private sector be paid a minimum of Rupees 5000 as starting scale and a 25% annual increase. It is also expected that the government is to make an announcement shortly regarding this matter. Private Sector Trade Union Collective is not agreeable to this.

D.W.Gunasinghe, General Secretary of the Ceylon Trade Union, has pointed out the big discrepancy between the wages of employees in the public sector and those of the private sector. He had pointed out that an employee in the public sector gets Rupees 11,750 as the starting scale while it is Rs 5000 in the case of a private sector employee.

One of the main reasons for most of the private sector employees drawing very low wages is the absence of a committee to draw up their salaries. The boards that make recommendations for the wage increase of the private sector employees are not empowered to determine a salary structure.

Therefore the government should act early to do the needful regarding their salary anomaly.

An English translation of the Editorial in Thinakkural, a Tamil daily, based in Colombo

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