Awareness Level of Workers to Labour Laws in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study focuses on assessing the apparel sector employees’ level of awareness on labour laws who are working in the Free Trade Zones in Sri Lanka. The research was based on seven Labour Acts in Sri Lanka; Employees Provident Fund Act No.15 of 1958, Employees Trust Fund Act No.46 of 1980, Payment of Gratuity Act No. 12 of 1983, Industrial Dispute Act No.27 of 1966, Maternity Benefits Ordinance No.32 of 1939, Factories Ordinance No.45 of 1942, and Wages Board Ordinance No.27 of 1941. Data collection done through a worker questionnaire and out of 200 sample 158 were respondent. The garment factories were selected by the convenient sampling method and respondents were selected through simple random sampling method. Data analysis done through descriptive statistics and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results show that gender and level of experience has not make a significance different among particular group of employees.  However, education and age has a significant impact on the awareness of employees on labour laws. Moreover, the Factories Ordinance showed the rate of the most wakefulness while the Maternity Benefits Ordinance showed the least awareness.