Wednesday 5th March, 2025

The political health of any government, however powerful it may be, is in peril when doctors and nurses down tools, for the healthcare system is a cornerstone of social stability. The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) threatened a strike in protest against what it calls allowance cuts, but put it off until 21 March, when the final vote on the 2025 Budget is scheduled to be taken.

Has the government promised any committee-stage changes to the budget to accommodate the doctors’ demands? The public sector salaries are as interconnected as the gears of a clock, and an ad hoc adjustment to any one of them is bound to cause intractable anomalies and send the whole system haywire. There’s the rub.

Some nurses trade unions are also on the warpath. Speaking in Parliament yesterday Minister of Health Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa defended the budget proposals pertaining to salaries and allowances in the health sector, but the warring trade unions have refused to buy into his claims. So, there will be a showdown unless the government meets their demands.

The moment of truth for any new government is its maiden budget, which is expected to fulfil everyone’s expectations. This may not be fair, but that is the way the cookie crumbles. The JVP/NPP, while in the opposition, inveighed against the SLPP administration and organised protests and work stoppages, demanding higher pay for workers despite the economic crisis. The boot is now on the other foot.

Talking the talk is one thing, but walking the walk is quite another. Hence, brilliant orators in the Opposition become poor performers when voted into power. There are some exceptions, but they only serve to prove the rule.

The SLPP had a phalanx of orators whose platform speeches would mesmerise the public, so much so that Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President in 2020, and the SLPP secured a near supermajority in Parliament the following year. But those smooth-tongued rhetoricians became abject failures in the SLPP government. The same apparently holds true for their successors who came to power, making a bazillion promises.

The public sector trade unions which are demanding pay hikes, etc., and threatening strikes ought to act responsibly. True, the economy has improved since 2022; the IMF itself has confirmed this fact, but it is not out of the woods yet. Unless the government meets its revenue targets and rebuilds the country’s foreign currency reserves, the economy––currently in remission––is likely to relapse. The warring trade unions have to ensure that their members work hard, earn their keep and help enhance national productivity, a prerequisite for economic development.

The NPP government is in the current predicament because President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made the mistake of raising the state employees’ hopes beyond measure by promising an unprecedented pay hike. He would reiterate that pledge on numerous occasions. Naturally, the public sector workers, who voted overwhelmingly for the NPP in the last two elections, expecting salary increases, etc., in return, were disappointed when the 2025 budget was presented to Parliament.

When it was in the Opposition, the JVP/NPP had a government mindset. Now, the JVP-led NPP government acts like an Opposition party. Instead of using its supermajority to take decisive action to solve the burning issues affecting the public, it resorts to sloganeering and political circuses in a bid to cover up its failures but without success.

One can only hope that the government will negotiate with the trade unions that are spoiling for a fight and do everything possible to prevent strikes, which will make the country’s economic recovery even more difficult.