A fitting reward

The budgetary proposal to implement a pension scheme for Lankan migrant workers is to come into effect early next year according to a front page story we carry today. This was in keeping with a pledge made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he met a group of Lankan migrant workers sometime ago. In terms of this proposal the Government will make an initial contribution of Rs 1,000 million towards the Overseas Employees’ Pension Fund (OEPF). Each employee has to make an annual contribution of Rs 12,000 which could be made in stages. The contribution will have to be made for a minimum two years to qualify for the pension.

This is indeed is an unprecedented step anywhere in the world where one’s countrymen employed in foreign shores are granted pension rights. It is indeed a fitting gesture on the part of the Sri Lankan Government, given that remittance from overseas now constitute the largest foreign exchange earner of the country.

Indeed it is a great gesture on the part of the President to recognize the contribution made by our migrant workers to the country’s economy. According to our story foreign remittance now represents as much as 35 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. The President no doubt has seen it fit to reciprocate this bounty in some form. A pension for these migrant workers is as good a reward as any. They have now a nest egg to make them feel secure when they return to the country at the end of their duty stints abroad.

There have been instances where migrant workers especially housemaids after returning home were compelled to go back again due to a return to the status quo. There are also tales of how their earnings have been squandered by footloose husbands reducing them to penury once again. A pension could now obviate this need of returning to back to resume their slavery making them give more time and attention to their families.

Needless to say these segment of our Lankans were hitherto largely ignored by successive Governments who failed to realize their contribution to the country’s economic well-being. Sometimes they were given mere sops such as additional duty concessions to purchase goods at the airport or exempted from paying embarkation tax etc.

There were no long term benefits to reward their toil. Nothing tangible or lasting was granted to them. Among these lot are the army of housemaids who undergo harrowing ordeals and appalling work conditions who sometimes return to the country only with the clothes on their body or worse in coffins. This while Government servants and private sector employees were receiving EPF ETF benefits, gratuity and other myriad terminal benefits for doing little or no work. Even Election manifestos failed to recognize our migrant workers and mentioned them only in passing.

They could now be secure in the notion that there will be some form of security to fall back on after years of sacrifice and toil in alien lands cut off from their loved ones and familiar surroundings. The news would also make those who are preparing to return to the country extend their stints to avail of this added benefit.

This, while making these migrant workers earn more through their extended stint would also keep the foreign exchange flow on an even keel. In fact this could even lead to enhanced forex earnings with more and more opting to seek overseas employment buoyed by the pension benefit.

A move to look into the possibility of integrating past migrant workers into the pension scheme too is a sound one. Today many of these ex-workers have fallen by the wayside and don’t have the financial resources to pay their way to obtain foreign employment.

It is also fitting that it is an SLFP led Government that has come out with this plan to reward our migrant workers. We say this because it was under the SLFP led United Front Government in 1976 that the first batch of Lankan housemaids took flight to the Middle East in the days that followed the Non Aligned Conference where the Government succeeded in securing employment opportunities in the Middle East.

The trickle subsequently snowballed into an avalanche where now we have over three million Lankans working overseas sending home their earnings to keep home fires burning and improve the quality of the lives of their families and above all providing the wherewithal that is oiling the country’s economy. This is all the more reason why they should be recognized and rewarded tangibly. Hence the Government’s gesture should be welcomed and appreciated.