Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Workers' Representatives Convention, 1971 (No. 135) - Sri Lanka (Ratification: 1976)

Article 2 of the Convention. Facilities. In its previous comments, the Committee had noted allegations that workers’ representatives faced difficulties in accessing undertakings located in export processing zones (EPZs).The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that facilitation centres have been established in three EPZs (Biyagama, Katunayake and Koggala) in which any trade union representative may discuss in private, and without the interference of employers, the formation of new trade unions or matters pertaining to existing unions. The Committee further notes the information provided by the Government that, of the 34 enterprises in EPZs that have recognized trade unions, 18 have granted check-off facilities and six have signed collective agreements.

Article 5. Requirement not to undermine position of trade unions. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the allegation that employers in EPZs had used for many years the creation of “employees’ councils” promoted by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to hamper the creation of free and independent trade unions and to prevent them from exercising their right to collective bargaining and in particular that the councils can replace trade unions in collective bargaining if the latter do not represent 40 per cent of the workforce and the former do. The Committee notes that the Government has not addressed specifically this matter in its report. Recalling that the protection of Article 5 of the Convention applies to the representatives of all trade unions in the enterprise, the Committee again requests the Government to ensure that, where both trade unions and elected representatives exist in an undertaking either within or outside the EPZs, the existence of elected representatives is not used to undermine the position of the trade unions concerned in collective bargaining.