Changing labour laws

Sri Lanka labour laws are often criticised for being archaic and cumbersome. At a time when employment is moving towards informal work, largely due to the influence of technology, traditional legal measures may not be wide ranging enough to preserve the relationship between employer and employee, and accommodate new types of jobs being created. Sri Lanka’s Labour Department has said it is working to upgrade and expand existing laws to accommodate these developments.    

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in a recent report titled ‘Future of Work in Sri Lanka’ explores the challenges the Sri Lankan economy will face as it attempts to adapt technology to an aging population. The report recommends that policymakers adapt to a range of strategies to gainfully shape the world of work in the country. Policy portfolios have been articulated across four domains. 

First, education and skilling will need to provide lifelong learning opportunities, and build capacities for availing opportunities in new sectors and launching entrepreneurial ventures. Secondly, technology and innovation can be used to shape technological trajectories that develop applications to serve those that are at risk of being left behind, and accelerate employment generation in new sectors. 

Thirdly, enhanced labour protection will provide new frameworks to better protect workers, as the number of contracted, self-employed workers increase and employment relationships transform through platformisation of work. 

Finally, strategies for redistribution can ensure technology gains are distributed more widely into society, through Government policies and stronger universal safety nets, and new forms of employee compensations in firms. 

The Government and other stakeholders would have to promote digital skilling programs and strengthen foundational skills. In the future of a digital economy, there lies a critical window of opportunity for Sri Lankan youth entering the workforce over the next decade. Digital skilling interventions will need to go beyond technical skills to enable adaptiveness among workers, but skilling cannot act as a substitute for education. Clearly the Government has a huge challenge on its plate. 

Clearly the best place to start is to acknowledge there are no easy answers and genuinely work with stakeholders for solutions. This would mean that labour laws also have to work to ensure that social safety nets are established even in informal work spaces. 

This is difficult because a large part of Sri Lanka’s workforce is informal, even within the private sector, and there are a large number of women in this space. Drawing them into a regulatory space is also difficult given the large amount of red tape and bureaucracy involved. 

As the relationship between the employer and employee changes there is also the challenge to understand where service accountability comes in for the consumer. There have been multiple complaints about ride sharing platforms being unsafe with even an assault being reported. But large multinational companies do not have to answer to local laws. 

Protecting labour in a gig economy without hindering growth will be a major challenge for countries in the future. This is especially a challenge as technology-driven employment is widening the divide between larger cities and rural areas creating a social and political backlash that could have significant consequences.