PCoI on SriLankan Airlines No human resources policies until 2012: former Head of HR

By Yoshitha Perera   

SriLankan Airlines do not have proper Human Resources (HR) policies or a comprehensive employee management manual before 2012; former Head of HR and current Head of Logistics and Properties Pradeepa Kekulawala informed the SriLankan Airlines Commission yesterday. He informed the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) to investigate into irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka that he had developed a single document and HR policies since 2012 after he joined as Head of HR of the company.   
“I took nearly five years to develop these HR policies,” he informed the Commission. He said that SriLankan had set of documents which used as guidelines when appointing people for the permanent cadre and there was no operative manual approved by the previous HR division to appoint members to the permanent staff.   

Senior State Counsel Fazly Razik queried whether there were any clauses in the manual or set of documents which the Company had used as guidelines which they can join a person to the permanent cadre without presenting them for an interview. In reply Kekulawala said that there was no manual during the time and he has done whatever the job description he has to do at that time.   

“There are occasions which we have to appoint persons without advertising the position and we have taken them as a business purpose,” he said.When Razik pointed out whether the HR has to obtain approval from the board to appoint certain members, he emphasized that he do not need to seek the approval of senior management in such appointments.