National policy on occupational safety, health in the offing: Labour Ministry

Colombo, Oct. 15 (Daily Mirror) - A national policy on occupational safety and health is being drafted and is expected to be published soon, the Ministry of Labour said.

This was revealed during a meeting of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Labour Affairs, held recently under the chairmanship of Minister of Labour Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando. 

Ministry officials said that the process of formulating a national policy on occupational safety and health has reached the final stage and that it is expected to be published soon.

It was also revealed that steps have been taken to update the data base of the Labour Department in a timely manner and under the government’s digitalization programme, amendments are being made to ensure that workers are immediately registered in the system upon entering the labour force.

Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando said that attention is currently being given to the introduction of four key bills under the proposed labour law reforms.

Speaking at the meeting, the Secretary to the Ministry said that a 17-member committee has been appointed to study the reforms of 14 labour laws currently in force. 

He noted that the committee, at its initial meeting, reached a basic consensus to draft four principal labour-related bills. 

The Secretary to the Ministry further stated that the committee has agreed to prepare separate bills for four areas: trade unions, labour, occupational safety and termination of employment, and that necessary amendments will be made to the existing laws until new laws are formulated. 

The Secretary to the Ministry also said that amendments will be made to the Women Working at Night law, the Labour Protection law and matters related to insurance in the event of termination of employment.