Salih, Rozana; Kelegama, Saman; (1998) Labour Retrenchment in a Privatisation Programme: Policy Issues from the Sri Lankan Experience. Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) , 21 (1&2) pp. 1-36.

Preview

Text JSS_21_1.pdf - Published Version Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper looks at the Sri Lankan lahoul. retrenchment experience during privatization. The experience is traced by looking at how three key issues have heen resolved, namely; (i) voluntary versus involuntary retrenchment; (ii) using a compensation package as a safety net; and (iii) pre-vcl-sus postprivatization retrenchment. It is shown that: (i) a voluntary ~.etiring scheme cannot always he restricted in its application to redundant labour and thus it tends to suffer from the adverse selection problem; (ii) a fixed compensation package appears to be hettcr than a flexihle compensation package, especially if trade unions are characterized by rent seeking hehavioul. and compensation packages are downward iigi4 and(iii) pre-privatization ~eh~nchment may not 1)e the hesL option for every state-owned enterprise because it ignores the post-privatization restructuring options. It is argued that the rettencl~ment experience met with serious problems in resolving all three issues, mainly because of the inflexibility in the Sri Lankan labour market and inadequate design of the re trencliment programmes.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as JSONCSVXML

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item