Labour Minister and Deputy Finance Minister Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando met International Labour Organization Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo in Geneva on Monday, briefing him on Sri Lanka’s labour-rights agenda and signalling the government is now considering ratifying the ILO convention on work in fishing.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 114th Session of the International Labour Conference, which runs from 1 to 12 June 2026, with the Labour Minister having departed for Geneva on Sunday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development cited by Ada Derana.
Mr Fernando briefed the Director-General on the range of reforms being implemented to strengthen labour laws and social-protection mechanisms, and sought ILO support for those efforts. He highlighted Sri Lanka’s recent ratification of ILO Convention No. 190 on violence and harassment in the world of work and said the government had already taken steps to introduce the necessary legal provisions for its implementation.
The Minister also said the government was considering ratifying Convention No. 188 (C188) on Work in Fishing, with the objective of ensuring decent working conditions for workers engaged in the fisheries sector. C188, adopted in 2007 and in force since 2017, sets binding standards on working agreements, accommodation, food, medical care and social security for fishing-vessel crews — a politically sensitive area given the country’s large coastal and inland fisheries workforce and the ongoing protections debate around informal fisheries labour.
Mr Houngbo commended the government’s commitment and recent efforts to align with international labour-rights conventions, and said the ILO would provide the necessary technical assistance to support those initiatives, the Ministry said.
The engagement caps Sri Lanka’s presence at the 114th ILC, which opened in Geneva on 1 June with the formal Sri Lankan delegation in attendance. It also builds on this year’s labour-rights work, including the South4Care unpaid-care-economy push and the CSF gig-workers framework anchored to ILO platform-economy standards.
