The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) held a meeting at the Labour Department with Minister for Labour Manusha Nanayakkara, Commissioner General of Labour B.K. Prabath Chandrakeerthi, Advisor-cum-Private Secretary to the Minister Shan Yahampath, and other ministry officials to address the need for important labour reforms. 

The primary focus of the meeting was to advocate for progressive labour regulations that will help to ensure a safe and conducive working environment for employees, complemented by a well-designed safety net post-employment. 

The post-pandemic situation as well as the economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka has resulted in the much-observed “brain drain” that is occurring. COYLE said it believes this can only be prevented in the future years by ensuring that the economy has a significant increase in the number of private sector institutions capable of delivering sufficient wages to its workforce. 

The public sector has been burdened and rendered inefficient due to the large redundant workforce that has been bought onto its payroll by politically motivated decisions made by all governments during the past decades. This crisis should be the final catalyst for shifting the thought mechanism of burdening the public sector with short-term decision-making for political mileage to developing the private sector to amass a larger job pool and more career-building opportunities as all developed countries.