Workers around the world celebrate May Day, also known as Labour Day and International Workers’ Day, on May 1 (Wednesday). It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries including Sri Lanka and the event is celebrated in some of the most staunchly capitalist countries such as the UK too. However, Labour Day is now celebrated in September in the USA, the country that May Day originated from.
This year is a year filled with hope and optimism for workers around the world as most countries have now recovered from the pandemic. Industries such as aviation and tourism have almost fully recovered, creating thousands of jobs. Most other sectors of the economy have rebounded too, with a variety of jobs on offer for the right candidates.
However, Sri Lanka was hit by a double whammy with the pandemic and a debilitating economic crisis that virtually decimated the economy with the loss of thousands of jobs. Even the agriculture sector was affected due to the organic fertiliser debacle, making farmers destitute. With the economy gradually picking up since the dark days of 2022, there is hope that more jobs would be created in every sphere. Most countries including Sri Lanka are striving to re-orient their economies to boost local agriculture and other economic sectors so that more jobs can be generated locally. That is one way in which the working class can participate in the process of reviving the economy.
Most workers are also fortunate in that the majority of Sri Lankan companies (apart from the State sector, which anyway offers ironclad job security) do not practise hire and fire policies, which would have brought about drastic consequences for workers and their families. This is what has happened in many developed countries. Sri Lanka has very stringent labour laws, the value of which we realise in an environment like the pandemic and the economic crisis. But to find out where this idea of workers’ rights came from, we have to go back in time to the USA of the 1880s.
The May Day tradition is more than 125-years-old, having begun as an agitation campaign against harsh working conditions by workers in the US in 1886. They were demanding a 40-hour working week, which is now more or less standard around the world, although some countries have pruned it down to 35 hours. The slogan was “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will”.
In the famous 1886 Haymarket incident in Chicago, US, police fire killed several trade union leaders and workers who were engaged in a demonstration seeking better working conditions and fewer working hours. It was usual for employers then to get their employees to work for 16-18 hours a day, almost non-stop. It is generally accepted that these events eventually led to the adoption of the 40-hour working week.
Origins
In 1889, the first Congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognised as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891. However, as stated previously, the US and Canada now observe the Labour Day in September.
With the establishment of the United Nations, a specialist agency for labour matters, called the International Labour Organization (ILO) was created. In cooperation with Governments around the world, it has evolved Labour Charters honoured by all UN Members. This has ensured much better working conditions than the demonstrators of 1886 ever envisaged. Today, one can even Work From Home (WFH) in some sectors. Moreover, with the concept of “Digital Nomads”, the question of where you work from has become immaterial. One can work from Kiribati for a company based in Ghana.
Sri Lankans have observed May Day for decades. It is a vibrant event with rallies, demonstrations and parades. Over the years, May Day has been transformed into a political event based loosely on the significance of the day for the working class. It has become an opportunity for political parties to show their grassroots strength and also their affinity to the working masses. Although one can no longer witness the massive May Day rallies of yesteryear, the day has still not lost its significance in our country.
Now the focus has shifted firmly towards political propaganda, with workers’ rights and struggles often relegated to the second place. Parties should strive to put the worker first in their rallies and meetings.
Trade Unions
In the end, it is very hard to separate the labour movement from politics in Sri Lanka and for that matter, in most other countries. The workers in many organisations are represented by trade unions which are for the most part affiliated with the major political parties. There are some stand-alone and professional trade unions, which find it hard to raise their voice without the backing of a political party.
Sri Lanka has a vibrant trade union sector, especially in the 1.5 million strong Government workforce. However, many of them have started to strike at the drop of a hat, without first resorting to negotiations. This has a negative effect on many sectors, from education to health. After all, it is the public that suffers the most through these lightning strikes. When Government health professionals strike, it is the poor patients who suffer, while the rich can afford to go to private hospitals which charge exorbitant fees.
Most private sector companies generally do not tolerate trade unions, but this is beginning to change. There also are a number of powerful professionals’ trade unions which should essentially be non-political but which have increasingly dipped their toes in political waters.
Most trade unions are well known for making demands from the Government in power. For this reason, many trade unions are nearly always at loggerheads with the Government. Some of the demands are reasonable, but most are not. Sri Lanka’s trade unions have a predilection for demanding higher salaries for their workforce, regardless of the economic situation of the country.
Do workers and trade unions pause to think of their obligations to their organisations and to the public? This rarely happens. Work really is a two-way street. This May Day, both employers and employees should thus re-think their obligations in the name of industrial peace.
After all, no investor will like to invest in a country that lacks industrial peace and also political stability. It is often said that if former President J.R. Jayewardene did not take stern action against the July 1980 strikers, foreign investors would have shunned the then-new Free Trade Zones (FTZs). It is, therefore, essential to keep strikes to a minimum and also ensure stability on the governance front. The political forces in the country should address the current work-related issues without delay as it could have severe repercussions on the investment front.
Work itself is an investment in a country’s future, for it is essential for economic growth. But the pandemic and the economic crisis have changed the very nature of work and also severely affected sub-sectors such as informal work and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). The informal economy refers to jobs which typically have little protection, such as for income in case of sickness, political upheavals or lockdowns.
The “informal economy” accounts for jobs that are neither taxed nor monitored by Governments, and that make up a huge proportion of developing economies. Some two-thirds of the world’s working class are employed in such “grey market” jobs. Millions of jobs in the global tourism sector were also at risk with the collapse of tourism during the pandemic years. But many of these jobs and self-employment ventures are now getting back on track, giving a boost to the global economy.
Changing nature of work
In the meantime, the very nature of work is changing. The pandemic taught us that it is not strictly necessary to go to office to work. Hence, this gave rise to the concept of Working From Home. Moreover, the availability of programs such as Zoom and Slack meant that office meetings and collaborative projects could also be done from home. All you need for WFH is a PC or laptop, a reliable data connection and a willingness to work at home.
There are many advantages of WFH. There is no need to travel to and from office, which leads to a considerable saving in terms of fuel for private cars and bus/train fares for those using public transport. There is also no need to dress up as you can work in your home clothes. You can set your own time table – studies have shown that employees engaged in WFH are more productive and actually work longer hours than office-based workers. The only disadvantage of WFH, at least in the context of countries such as Sri Lanka and India, are power cuts, though this too can be addressed to some extent by using UPS/inverter devices, battery-powered 4G routers and laptops with sufficient battery power.
But not all jobs can be done through WFH. A nurse cannot possibly WFH. Sanitation workers cannot WFH. There are many other jobs that cannot be done via WFH, including in journalism itself – a war correspondent cannot possibly cover the war in Ukraine and Gaza from his or her armchair in some other part of the world. This is indeed why those who have to go to work in the conventional sense of the word have to be given all protections.
We must also remember that millions of people around the world are unemployed, including those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and economic turmoil. Paradoxically, there are many vacancies out there with no takers due to the mismatch between education systems and job market requirements in many countries including Sri Lanka. This lacuna must be addressed to create more job opportunities for youth. This May Day, Governments must not only honour those who work, but also address the grievances of those without jobs. That will be a true celebration of May Day ideals.
Challenges
But there are also threats to the very concept of work, as performed by humans. Industrial robots have taken over entire factories and warehouses. Some cars are assembled almost entirely by robots, which can work 24/7 without any breaks. These robots and the process of automation may have taken thousands of jobs away from humans. The next challenge is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has already hit jobs in some industries such as publishing and media. With Generative AI going mass market, all you need is a few lines of text to generate an art or essay. Metaverse technologies such as Augmented Reality can also affect some jobs. But even AI and Machine Learning (ML) needs human input. So all is not lost. We need to find a balance between these two worlds.
