Labour law reforms are brought to suppress people - Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar

COLOMBO(News1st): Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar of the University of Jaffna says "Labour law reforms are being brought about to make it so that people cannot resist, cannot protest, people cannot join trade unions."

He expressed these views at a press briefing organized by the Kuppi Collective which was held at the Centre for Society and Religion in Colombo on Friday (08).

"An illegitimate parliament voted and approved domestic debt restructuring" says Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar a Senior Lecturer at the  University of Jaffna. "It mainly focused on reducing the retirement funds of our working people" He added.

"Particularly the EPF and ETF which having confidence in our state, our workers have been saving and investing in treasury bonds and what the central bank governor and what the parliament has now done is if that DDR goes forward, in 15 years time 50% of their returns are going to be lost" said Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar.

"Already real wages are down by 50%, because as all of you know food inflation has doubled. It's in this kind of a context that these labour law reforms are being brought about to make it so that people cannot resist, cannot protest, people cannot join trade unions." Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar added. 

Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar also said "This is an insult to the working people of this country"