The Hon. Mahinda Jayasinghe - Deputy Minister of Labour
The Deputy Minister said the Bills provide a historic increase in private sector wages, raising the basic wage from Rs. 17,500 to Rs. 30,000 by the following January, following earlier public sector increases. He stated that the process was delayed by a legal challenge from a trade union not represented in the National Labour Advisory Council, and said the Government had reconvened the NLAC after a long lapse to pursue tripartite dialogue. Responding to criticism on estate worker wages, he said existing collective agreements signed in September 2024 set wages until September 2027, while the Government would seek further improvements through discussions with employers and unions. He argued that a proposed Committee-stage amendment for a Rs. 1,600 daily estate wage could not be made through the present Bills.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chair, listening to the Opposition today, it seems they love us tremendously—Hon. Chamara Sampath and Hon. Hesha Withanage gave us many “instructions” on how to govern. I will respond.
¶ 02 For private sector workers, today is historic: this is the largest increase in private sector wages in our country’s history—from a basic of Rs. 17,500 to Rs. 30,000 by next January. Those who governed before are here; the people know what they did. We already granted the largest-ever public sector increase in a short time; now we legislate for the private sector.
¶ 03 These Bills could have come earlier, but a trade union that is not even represented in the NLAC challenged them, delaying matters by about two months and arrears payments. Nonetheless, today is historic: Rs. 17,500 to Rs. 30,000.
¶ 04 The former rulers now say this is insufficient. True—we are not claiming that all prices have fallen because of 60–80 percent public sector increases. But we inherited a wrecked, looted country and in seven months have stabilized and are moving forward. This is the best feasible wage increase at this moment; we will go further.
¶ 05 When we took over the Ministry, the NLAC had not been convened for over a year and a half. We convened it on 15 January for the first time, and four times so far, to build a better environment through tripartite dialogue among employers, trade unions and Government.
¶ 06 I hear crocodile tears about estate workers—from those who governed. Let me educate you. Collective agreements signed on 10.09.2024—soft copies are on my phone; I can table them—fix estate wages for three years. Under those agreements, wages are revised once in three years and are valid until 10.09.2027. We will, however, strive with employers and unions to secure higher increases for estate workers.
¶ 07 Two Members have submitted a Committee-stage amendment seeking a Rs. 1,600 daily minimum; that cannot be done through these Bills—it is another ruse to mislead. They want to show estate workers, “We stood for you.” When Minister Anil Jayantha correctly stated current figures, they shouted it down.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 22 July 2025 ·No. 1753443916033328 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/13727
Cite as: The Hon. Mahinda Jayasinghe - Deputy Minister of Labour. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 July 2025. No. 1753443916033328. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/13727