Govt. to stop military offensives in the north?

The government has decided to stop all offensives in the north in order to facilitate peace moves.

The government will only engage in military exercises if there is an attack by the LTTE. Highly placed government sources said that the government is in touch with the Norwegian facilitators to kick start the stalled peace efforts. The government top brass is now in the process of meeting with constituent parties individually in a bid to surmount the stalemate situation. Senior officials attached to the Presidential Secretariat have recently met All Party Representative Committee Chairman Tissa Vitarana to explore possibilities of making way for peace. So far, the government has met with small time Muslim parties and was scheduled to meet with the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress last evening. They have also spoken to the Ceylon Workers Congress in unofficial terms and would meet with them next week to elaborate discussions on how to get about the peace process. The officials are also set to meet TULF Leader V. Anandasangaree, PLOTE Leader Dharmalingam Sidharthan and the JHU. The government is however yet to meet with the JVP.Meanwhile, security forces said that the north has to be handled very carefully, and the forces have no plans to acquire lands in the northern area. But what is most important at this point is to usher in peace and to strengthen the economy. “The geography of the north is completely different from the east and the demographic situation of the north is totally different to that of the east,” the source added.

Regular jobs going out of fashion
Sunday, July 22,2007 COLOMBO:

Permanent work contracts and life-long-jobs are going out of fashion in Sri Lanka with more and more businesses opting for informal work arrangements. The latest findings show that Sri Lanka’s job market is ‘informalising’ at a rate, jerking labour market regulatory systems out of gear. Given the changes, the experts say Sri Lanka needs to re-look at existing labour regulations fast, to make sure they remain useful.Informalisation“Sri Lanka’s labour market is becoming increasingly informalised. Traditionally our labour market was about fulltime jobs and sometimes people had one job for life. This is not the case anymore,” said Dr Athula Ranasinghe, from the University of Colombo’s Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC). The latest research on labour flexibility and economic security in Sri Lanka was conducted by SPARC, with International Labour Organisation (ILO) support. “Now we are seeing more ‘atypical’ workers because the typical structures are changing. This is because businesses now hire workers under many different arrangements instead of hiring in the traditional way. The result is increasing informalisation of the labour market,” said Ranasinghe.Companies are increasingly outsourcing activities to third parties that in turn hire casual workers. “So jobs that were previously in the formal sector are migrating to the informal sector,” said Ranasinghe. Companies are also increasingly issuing short term contracts instead of permanent contracts. More people are also holding down multiple jobs and more people are looking for part-time work. “But our existing labour regulations are not designed to cater to these types of different working arrangements. Most of the time the labour regulations are applicable to the formal labour market but now it is the informal sector that is growing,” said Ranasinghe. The result is that both labour laws and labour market institutions are becoming less relevant to Sri Lankan society. For instance the SPARC-ILO surveys found that trade unions are losing worker support.“Younger people are beginning to feel that trade unions are less supportive of worker objectives and problems. So this means traditional trade unions need to change or some other type of arrangement needs to be developed to give voice to working people,” said Ranasinghe.Education not enoughThe growing informalisation of the labour market is also raising questions about the effectiveness of education in finding employment. The surveys found that informal methods of using ‘contacts’ and ‘influence’ are still the main route to jobs, rather than finding jobs by going through the formal systems on the strength of educational qualifications. “Around 24% of people visited prospective employers to get jobs and another 25% applied for jobs through contacts. Only about 30% applied for jobs through the formal, published job vacancies. So where does that leave education?” asks Ranasinghe. Less securityThe experts say growing informalisation is reducing employment security for working people in Sri Lanka. The power balance in the labour market, despite the existence of labour laws, is shifting in favour of businesses. “Although the laws are there, because they are less effective in the informal sector, the legal protection available to working people is relaxing. Because traditional trade unions are also losing relevance, collective worker power is also reducing. So the safety nets for workers are gradually dissolving,” explained Ranasinghe.The experts say lower skilled and unskilled poor masses are the most vulnerable to exploitation under these conditions as they have less bargaining power. Because of less employment security, overall, people will also have less economic security.Global problemInternational labour experts say growing informalisation is a global phenomenon and not just a development in Sri Lanka. People in rich countries as well as poor countries are caught up in the process. But by now many western countries are officially developing systems to protect their people from these changes.“There are many factors that are causing informalisation. It could be due to internal conflicts, misplaced policies and are also very much due to globalisation and liberalisation,” said Dr Azfar Khan from the ILO. Increasing global competition is forcing companies to outsource business processes and cut costs to maintain profits. Cutting costs often translate into less benefits and less security for workers.“Aided by ICT developments, firms are moving towards work-from-home arrangements and other systems, like outsourcing non-core activities. In these cases they do not have to provide social security for workers,” said Khan.In developed countries the impacts on people are seen as less severe because these countries have strong legal systems. But governments are already moving to protect working people.“Governments all over the world are looking into this situation. Already the UK and the US are considering pension reforms,” said Khan.Sri Lanka has also been advised to re-examine labour regulations to keep pace with the changes.