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The findings of a recent study on labour flexibility and economic security, conducted by the University of Colombo's Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) with support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), shows that Sri Lanka's job market is ‘informalising' and upsetting labour market regulatory systems. Added to that is the fact that trade unions do not seem to attract labour any more.
Dr Athula Ranasinghe from SPARC said they were seeing more ‘atypical' workers because the typical structures are changing. “This is because businesses now hire workers under many different arrangements instead of hiring in the traditional way. The result is increasing informalisation of the labour market,” he said.
Sri Lankan companies are also outsourcing activities much more to third parties that, in turn, hire casual workers. Jobs that were previously in the formal sector are thus migrating to the informal sector.
The SPARC-ILO survey also found that trade unions are losing worker support. Many young people don't feel they fulfil their needs. Labour experts say that the fact that trade unions have political affiliations, and there are just too many of them, is also putting off workers. Though less than 30% of the workforce is organised in unions, there are as many as 1,600 trade unions in Sri Lanka.
Companies, on the other hand, are also responsible for informalising the labour market, the study shows. They are increasingly issuing short-term contracts instead of permanent contracts. As a result, more people are looking for part-time work.
The high cost of living is also pushing people to take up more than one job to make ends meet. Annual inflation in July 2007 was 17% from single-digit inflation during the same period last year.
The SPARC-ILO survey found that informal methods of using ‘contacts' and ‘influence' are still the main route to jobs, rather than finding jobs on the traditional strength of educational qualifications.
Around 24% of people visited prospective employers to get jobs, and another 25% applied for jobs through contacts. Only about 30% applied for jobs through the formal, published job vacancies.
August 6, 2007
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