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THE
BOTTOM LINE EDITORIAL
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In want of secure employment- A crisis in the making
A work force of over 25,000 qualified and experienced personnel are going to be on the street seeking employment before the end of April. They are our unfair victims of global and locally-created recession. Sri Lanka is only beginning to feel the pinch and we could well expect the situation to get worse.
How fair is this process? Apart from ridding workplaces of the lower-rung of the performance grid, a large part of the ‘star performers’ have also been shelved to cut costs. Entire business units have been declared redundant in the new economic sphere – departments that once functioned as catalysts for products and companies. But what choice does an employee have in such a scenario; is it best to take what’s offered as compensation, or refuse and run the risk of being declared redundant? For some, programmes such as voluntary retirement schemes have come as a blessing in the light of already secured jobs, or as an incentive to pursue various individual dreams. But there are others who are unlucky, due to the lack of opportunity and sometimes the lack of personal vision. At present, it is an employers’ market; what they offer now is good as gold. Bargaining is a luxury an applicant can ill afford. And for those in employment – your job is your most valuable asset, guard it!
But the beauty of economics is that every down will have its up, just like it works the other way round. And there is some confidence that the world economy at large would bounce back within two years time. Then this becomes a time of opportunity; a time for risk-taking. Without doubt, low cost is the biggest advantage for every stakeholder in today’s economy – quality would be a bonus that might or may not come along with it. So it’s a time to rethink our strategy, a time for entrepreneurship for new-comers to make their impression on big-business and consumers. For when the time comes to gloat again, the impressions made today is what would matter.
What becomes of the 25,000-plus who are effectively at home without a steady form of income? Some may fly, some might fall. It’s not a fair process by any stretch of the word – but what can anyone do? The biggest names in business are shedding their fat, and more is to come.
So is business really in a position to extend its reach to the newly-liberated provinces? In reality, the present climate would prove it difficult despite a genuine want to do so. Perhaps it’s then another opportunity for a public-private partnership. For the private sector to promote its presence in the provinces, the government would have to offer concessions in the form of tax and other benefits. The process must go hand-in-hand; governments cannot expect miracles at a time of difficulty and must look to support the effort it expects of the private sector.
The Sri Lankan economy, business and people are faced with a difficult 2009, and its only going to get worse. The options that are present are very limited for the unlucky, and it’s really about choosing how best to last up until 2010. Not everyone’s up to taking risks, and the casualties could well be high. Perhaps that’s another disaster in the making. Protectionist policies though sounding welcome to some will not provide the answer; it would only serve to aggravate the wider economic problems. And as mentioned by the Asian Development Bank, what’s worrisome is that many stimulus packages in the Asian region show very little of how they would be implemented and where. This is a case with Sri Lanka, where transparency and accountability often come take a beating. This is not the time for politics and policies of corruption. Sri Lanka needs a future. Thus, despite our traditional averseness to calls for international checks and balances on people and process, perhaps this would be a time for us to agree and act with a greater sense of responsibility. To not shine in an expected milieu of peace and opportunity would indeed be a shameful state.
The G-20 Summit in London this week would have fuelled some hope of a cohesive initiative to tackle the decline. But with a real agenda that is so vast and just a day’s conference time, it is best that we do not expect miracles of any sort. However, we could hope that a worldwide reform of financial regulatory regimes and avoiding protectionism would receive their due prominence.
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