The construction sector is the biggest defaulter in providing ETF and EPF facilities to the workers, says Nissanka Wijeratne, Secretary General, CEO of Chamber or Construction Industry(CCI).
To address this issue, every worker in the construction sector including sub contractors should be issued a smart card with a unique identification number for accessing social schemes and benefits, Wijeratne said.
He made these observations at a seminar on ‘Construction Industry and the Way Forward’, organized by World University Service of Canada in collaboration with the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka.
To address the acute labour shortage in the industry, the government should come up with a massive publicity campaign to attract young school-leavers and others within the working age group to join the construction sector. In the meantime, the government has approved recruitment of 2,500 workers from Nepal and Myanmar and the first batch will arrive in mid- October.
According to Wijeratne, the apparel industry too will have to import workers as the industry is projecting a 15,000 requirement of foreign workers.
Earlier it was reported that the anticipated expenditure on construction projects announced by the government and private sector is Rs 6,500 billion during 2016 to 2020, and the estimated work force is one million.
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