Unions’ key demands met; strike called off

PM vows to forge ahead with vital reforms

By Saman Indrajith-December 15, 2015, 9:36 am 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament yesterday that Rs. 2,000 out of the 10,000-rupee allowance given to the public sector employees would be added to their basic salaries with effect from the beginning of next year.

Public and private sector trade unions yesterday called off their strike scheduled for today after the government agreed to grant some of their key demands.

Making a special statement, the Prime Minister said that action would be taken to add the balance of the allowance to the basic salaries in three phases within the next year.

The addition of the allowance to basic salaries could give rise to some issues pertaining to salary anomalies and, therefore, the government would re-establish the national salary commission, said the PM.

"We expect that commission to submit a complete report on public sector salaries within six months."

The Prime Minister said the government had met various trade union leaders during the last several days and all of them had asked him to make public the government’s position with regard to their demands and he was making the statement for that purpose.

"On Jan. 08, this year we started a new journey with the objective of ridding the country of corruption and inefficiency and enabling it to forge ahead with the rest of the world. It is no easy task. There are huge challenges ahead of us. We will have to think of the common good over the personal gains. We will have to make sacrifices. We do all these to ensure a better future for this country. That was the objective of the policy statement made to parliament by President Maithripala Sirisena, the mid-term economic policy presented to Parliament by me and the budget proposals by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

"I have been in power and out of power. I have been in the opposition without power. I made use of the power to build this nation. If I cannot make use of this power for that purpose I am ready to give it up. I have no intention of clinging to power at any cost. I will not take popular decisions without thinking of the future of this country. Some of our decisions may not be popular today, but someday the next generation will justify what we do today and tell the world that we did the right thing.

"The Rajapaksa regime misappropriated the monies of the EPF and ETF. We wanted to amalgamate the two funds to increase security and efficiency. But, as I once told this assembly we will maintain them as two different funds under the control of the Central Bank. We will take action to prevent anyone abusing those funds. The recruitment made to the public sector from 2005 were not regular and not according to the normal procedure. There are no funds to pay their pensions. That is a dangerous situation.

In 1963 the elderly population was 5.4 percent of the total population. That figure would be around 17.8 percent in 2031 and 27.7 percent in 2050. Life expectancy, too, has increased. In 1961, it was 61.5 years, in 2011 it was 75.3 years and this has been predicted to reach 81 years in 2050.

"Apart from that with the increased life expectancy the duration of pension payment has increased. In 1960s it was five years. Currently, it is about 15 years. It is expected to go up to 18 years in 2031 and 20 years in 2050.

As a result of this the allocation for the pensions in budget proposals has been on the rise. In 1961 the allocation made to the pensions was Rs. 83 million and it rose to Rs. 99,961 million in 2011 and is estimated to be around Rs. 4 trillion in 2050.

"The rulers with a foresight have known about the pension crisis since 1960s. Several of them including Dr. N. M. Perera have pointed this out. But there has been no genuine effort to address the problem because of petty political objectives.

The Rajapaksa regime did not look into the matter scientifically. It advanced a populist agenda and public sector recruitment was done haphazardly. It did not care about the fact that there would be no funds to pay the pensions for those who were recruited after 2005."

The Prime Minister said the government had provided the much-needed relief to the people through the budget proposals and would continue to take measures to improve public welfare.