Government does not know why it wants to reform the labour laws!

Labour Law reforms are coming. The government does not know why it wants to reform the law. At least that is what the Minister said in the meeting last week. He said we do not have a draft. We want to consult the public on ideas for reform.

In the same breath, he said, our labour laws are outdated. Investors are not coming to our country because of outdated labour laws.

It’s a little odd I thought. On the one end, the Government says there is no draft and the Government does not have any idea on what it wants to reform. On the other end, Government says labour laws are outdated.

And then the Employers’ Federation comes in and makes a long presentation which can be summarised in five phrases – fire and hire for workers, break trade union rights, reduce powers of labour courts, make the labour department redundant and remove protections for women workers under the guise of ‘equal right to work at night’.

If you are an employee who is receiving a salary from a company watch carefully for discourses in the media on labour law reform If you hear the word ‘outdated’ and ‘flexible’ please do not believe it. Ask yourself outdated for who? ‘Rigid’ for who? For employers who want to retrench workers without any protection for workers?

If you hear, the words ‘restrictions for women to do night work’ do not believe it. These are not restrictions. These are protections. The same protections must be extended to men not remove protections already afforded to women.

 

Swasthika Arulingam – Attorney At Law

United Federation of Labour