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16 October, 2026Low wages force many white-collar workers to rely on overtime. Digitalization and AI are increasing the pace of work and workloads, but not wages. Workers are increasingly monitored electronically and by CCTV. CMU does not yet see AI causing large-scale job losses, but fewer new jobs are being created.
Precarious work is growing. Payroll and payment processing are increasingly outsourced and agency work and fixed-term contracts are now common. Since the pandemic, companies have hired home-based workers as bogus independent contractors to avoid social security and Employees’ Provident Fund contributions.
“Supervisors, clerical staff and all white-collar workers are workers. We need to organize them. Digitalization is making their situation more difficult and the government is failing to implement labour laws effectively,”
says S.P. Nathan, CMU general secretary.
Precarious workers often fear losing their jobs if they join a union, and the real employer can be hard to identify. When CMU organized a group of agency workers, the company ended its agency contract and around 100 workers lost their jobs. Because this was legal, there was little recourse.
Union busting is widespread in Sri Lanka, and in many workplaces, management discourages workers from joining a union from the day they are hired.
Traditional organizing still works
CMU builds on existing networks, reaching white-collar workers where it already organizes blue-collar workers and vice versa. It focuses on industrial zones with an existing union presence, so workers can connect across workplaces and sectors. It also adapts its approach to each company.
Social media and leaflets help, but direct contact at factory and workplace entrances remains central. Where unions are present, local leaders and workplace committees are key to recruiting new members.
CMU is also mobilizing workers against proposed reforms that threaten to weaken or repeal 14 labour laws. Reaching young workers is a priority. Many know little about their rights, or that these were won through union struggle rather than granted automatically.
About CMU
CMU was founded to organize clerical workers and expanded in 1948 to include supervisory staff and plant-level management. In the 1970s, it opened its membership to blue-collar workers. CMU pioneered collective bargaining, notably under Bala Tampoe, and grew into one of Sri Lanka’s most influential unions.
Around half of CMU’s members are clerical and supervisory workers in private companies and semi-governmental agencies. The union represents pharmaceutical and chemical workers, including in fertilizer production and organizes in 29 of the 120 companies in the Hayleys Group, one of Sri Lanka’s largest conglomerates.