Industrial Disputes Act to be amended to expedite hearing of labour disputes

• LTs to be empowered to finalise hearing into cases
• More than 16,000 cases pending at present before MCs

Amendments to the Industrial Disputes (Special Provisions) Bill to expedite labour disputes will be enacted shortly, the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Labour and Foreign Employment was informed recently.

The Committee met to discuss the Industrial Disputes (Special Provisions) Bill which was published in the Gazette dated 8 April when it met under the Chairmanship of subject Minister Manusha Nanayakkara.

Under the existing Industrial Disputes Act, if the services of an employee are terminated by the employer, only the process of termination is dealt with under a Labour Tribunal (LT).  In cases where the employers do not agree or violate the provisions of various Acts pertaining to the payment of Employees’ Provident Fund, wages, other terms and conditions, litigation will be instituted in the Magistrates’ Courts.

As a result of this over 16,000 cases have been filed in about 80 Magistrate Courts functioning island wide. This has led to long delays in cases being heard and the aggrieved workers to get justice.

The Bill is to be amended to refer cases to the 37 established tribunals’ island wide which are currently conducting very small proceedings so as to expedite the hearing into the cases.

The new law will delegate the powers of prosecution to the Chairmen of Labour Tribunals.

Minister Nanayakkara said he will take steps to discuss with the trade unions the measures required to protect both the employer and the employee in the event of any factory closure due to specific economic conditions in the future.

The Bill was approved by the Ministerial Consultative Committee and will be taken up for debate at the next Parliamentary week. 

It was also stated at the Consultative Committee that although special training programs for foreign employment are being conducted island wide which are currently receiving a lot of attention, such programs are not being implemented in the Jaffna District

Therefore, the Minister instructed the relevant authorities to take immediate steps to implement language training programs in the Jaffna District.

Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva who was the previous Labour Minister was present at this meeting on a special invitation received from the current Minister Manusha Nanayakkara. The Committee Deputy Chairman Angajan Ramanathan and MP Jagath Pushpakumara and officials from the Ministry of Labour and many other Government institutes were present at this Committee meeting.