Trade Union Impact on Organisations.

Trade Unions in Sri Lanka is a controversial topic as it carries a significant amount of political ideologies in them. Almost all the trade unions in Sri Lanka are connected to a political party and driven by its political agendas rather than the needs of its members. Most of the professions have their own trade unions both state and private sectors, despite the importance and the crucial duties they perform, Sri Lankan trade unions tend to take trade union actions against the government ultimately resulting of inconveniencing of the general public.

Employee relation is a largely spoken topic in Human resources management. The trade unions are the most common and conservative approach to ER. Trade unions play a crucial role in Employee relations. But the commonly debatable factor in Sri Lanka is, are all the trade unions favour their members' interests? Or are they consider the longevity and the survival of the organisation? In the Government sector, we as Sri Lankans always experience the unfair demands made by the trade unions and how they inconvenience the general public by their trade union actions. The railway trade union action took place in very recent history is one of the classic examples of this dilemma.
There are a few types of trade union actions commonly takes place in Sri Lanka such as,

• Working to rule
• Go slow
• Overtime ban 
• Strike (withdrawal of workers )    
• Sit- in (occupation of the workplace)

One union action Sri Lankan never practice is "work in" (occupation of the workplace and attempt to operate it without management). Japanese bus drivers' trade union took such a trade union action against its management without causing any inconvenience to the general public in the recent past.

Trade Unions - Good or Bad?

The need for trade unions is a crucial factor to Employee Relations in Sri Lankan organisations as most of the Sri Lankan workers are not yet evolved to practice unitary views or collective bargaining. Even though some Sri Lankan private organisations are working towards such practices. Such practices should be highly encouraged and appreciated since they are taking us into an advanced working era.

One of the biggest downfalls of Sri Lankan trade unions is that there is no governing authority to oversee their interests. UK s' practice of registering trade unions is very advanced and appreciatable Government decision. In the UK there is a government body called CAC to evaluate and register trade unions. They have established a proper system to apply and evaluate trade unions through a state-appointed body and it very effectively maintains the modern trade union system known as the new style unions aka strike free agreements.

This type of government bodies should come into the Sri Lankan context preferably with suitable adaptations. That way General public won't put into trouble over political agendas.

Also, I believe with the correct use, trade unions can be a powerful tool to correct organisations which tries to operate out of the lines of employee agreements and be a powerful guiding force to provide better services to its customers, especially in the state sector.

In conclusion, the Sri Lankan Government must intervene and set proper standards to trade unions and they should not align with the interests of the current political party which runs the Government. These guidelines or rules should come through a body which includes trade specialists, union activists, scholars and people with transparency so the workers, as well as employers, can rely on their guideline which will become rules by the lawmakers.

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