The Hon. Jeevan Thondaman
Hon. Jeevan Thondaman referred to wage negotiations through the Wages Board, stating that an earlier request for a Rs. 1,700 basic wage had been rejected in favour of Rs. 1,550, contributing to the current dispute. He cautioned against combining trade union activity with politics for political advantage, thanked the President for agreeing to raise the basic wage to Rs. 1,700, and requested continued oversight of wage proposals, including earlier figures of Rs. 2,138 and Rs. 1,750.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Madam, please give me a few seconds.
¶ 02 When we went to the Wages Board requesting a basic wage of Rs. 1,700, they voted against Rs. 1,700 and granted only Rs. 1,550 as the basic wage. If Rs. 1,700 had been granted then, this problem would not have arisen now. At the same time, one cannot mix up trade unionism and politics to inflate problems for political gain.
¶ 03 Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Hon. President for acceding to my request to increase the basic wage to Rs. 1,700. I also ask you to monitor these issues. There had been a proposal from the government side at one point for a basic wage of Rs. 2,138, then it changed to Rs. 1,750. Please keep close oversight to resolve these matters.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 19 February 2026 ·No. 23328 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/30409
Cite as: The Hon. Jeevan Thondaman. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 19 February 2026. No. 23328. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/30409