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Plans for private sector to absorb excess State workers

26 Jul 2022

 
  • Labour Ministry currently seeking placements for public sector workers
  • Says process halted due to political unrest over past few days
  • Process expected to be expedited after new Minister assumes duties 
  By Imsha Iqbal  The Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment is engaged in seeking job placements for State sector workers in the private sector, following a proposal submitted by exporters expressing their willingness to absorb State workers into the export industry, The Morning Business learns.   Speaking to The Morning Business, Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment Media Secretary Sanjaya Nallaperuma stated yesterday (25): “We are currently looking for job vacancies to employ the State workers into the private sector. It was halted temporarily due to the political crisis that arose in the country during the past few days.” Nallaperuma further said, once Manusha Nanayakkara re-assumes duties as the Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment yesterday, the aforesaid process is expected to be resumed without further delay. Meanwhile, the National Chamber of Exporters (NCE), in June 2022, submitted to then-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe its proposals regarding absorbing private sector workers into the export sector for a period of five years, as a measure to relieve the expenditure burden on the Government of Sri Lanka. The NCE announced in a release: “The National Chamber of Exporters has given a proposal to the Prime Minister and copied it to the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils, and Local Government on providing employment opportunities to Government servants in the private sector companies for a specified period.”  The Chamber stated that it had become aware through media sources that the Ministry of Public Administration appointed a committee to grant five years of leave to Government employees to work in the private sector. The NCE expressed its criteria of eligibility for employment, while stressing that its businesses were able to sustain operations even during the pandemic, amidst a scarcity of skilled labour.  The Morning Business spoke to NCE Secretary General/CEO Shiham Marikar regarding the present stance on the previously submitted proposals on the said matter, who said: “Now we are going to follow up with the newly appointed Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government in the coming week.” Marikar further said that the NCE’s proposal was accepted by Wickremesinghe and no changes will be made to it, as those proposals focused on the economic crisis and the hardships still being faced by the exporters. According to the annual report for 2021 of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), public sector employment increased to 1.4 billion at the end of 2021. It noted: “The increase observed in public sector employment was due to the continued recruitment of unemployed graduates and multi task development officers, and recruitments related to armed and police forces, and health sector.” However, the CBSL’s 2021 annual report further said that the private sector remained the main employment generator in the country, representing the largest share of 42%, followed by own account workers, which accounted for 33.4% of the total employment during the aforementioned year.   


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