A sickening game of chicken

Wednesday 19th March, 2025

Some health sector trade unions launched a 24-hour strike yesterday, aggravating the suffering of the sick who visited the state-run hospitals seeking treatment. The protesting workers have said they were left with no alternative but to resort to trade union action as the Health Ministry had not heeded their grievances, the main being that their take-home salaries will decrease despite the government’s claim that it has granted them pay hikes.

A strike in one sector tends to have a domino effect on others, and trade union disputes have the potential to snowball. It will therefore be prudent for the government to address the root causes of the health sector labour struggles expeditiously. Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has, in his wisdom, opted for a game of chicken, hoping that the trade unions on the warpath will back down. Ironically, some pro-government trade unions which were accused of resorting to unfair industrial action, while the JVP was in the opposition, are berating the health sector strikers!

The government has asked the protesting health workers not to hold patients to ransom. Its call will resonate with the ordinary people dependent on free healthcare, but it will have to do much more if the problem at hand is to be solved once and for all. Ideally, vital sectors such as health should be free from strikes, but the governments do not take action to redress workers’ grievances unless trade unions resort to industrial action.

Most of the protesting trade unions backed the NPP in the last two elections, believing in the latter’s promises. Many Sri Lankans, including state employees, ‘barter’ their votes for the benefits promised by political parties in the run-up to an election. Problems occur when governments fail to fulfil their pledges after being ensconced in power.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, before presenting the NPP government’s maiden budget in Parliament, promised ‘unprecedented pay hikes’ for all public employees. When he, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, announced salary increases through Budget 2025, it was made out to be a generous gesture, but the health sector trade unions are of the view that it was just a sleight of hand. The government succeeded in having a doctors’ strike put on hold by promising to effect changes to the budget during the committee stage to sort out issues pertaining to their salaries. The doctors will resume their trade union action unless the government fulfils its pledge. The government will be in trouble even if it manages to resolve the doctors’ pay issues, for other trade unions will demand that their grievances be redressed in a similar manner.

The NPP government is in the current predicament mostly due to over-promising and under-delivering. Interestingly, the JVP, whose trade unions would resort to industrial action at the drop of a hat during previous governments, is now inveighing against strikers. One may recall that the JVP opposed a worker’s struggle in 1980, when it pulled out of a general strike at the eleventh hour. The other leftist parties that organised the labour struggle claimed the JVP had acted at the behest of the UNP, which it was honeymooning with at that time. The J. R. Jayewardene government crushed the strike in the most brutal manner; UNP goons were unleashed on strikers, one of whose leaders was killed. About 45,000 strikers were sacked, and some of them committed suicide. The pro-UNP labour unions vehemently condemned the strikers. Four and a half decades on, the JVP trade unions are doing likewise!

The NPP has raised workers’ expectations to a level where it cannot manage them. It promised biannual pay hikes, coupled with a substantial increase in the cost of living allowance. Thus, it garnered favour with the state workers, who voted overwhelmingly for it in last year’s elections. Now, it is under pressure to make good on its promises. This reminds us of a conversation in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease; the protagonist, a young civil servant, is told by another that the problem is not taking bribes but failing to do what they are taken for. The NPP government has failed to do what the state workers who voted for it expected in return—substantial pecuniary benefits.

Meanwhile, let the warring trade unions be urged to ensure that their members earn their keep, and comply with the rules and regulations governing their institutions. About 213 biometric attendance machines installed in state-run health institutions at a cost of Rs. 31 million remain unused due to trade union resistance. Those who refuse to use these machines do not deserve to be paid with state funds.