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Ceylon Bank Employees' Union [CBEU] entered into a new collective agreement with Commercial Bank of Ceylon on 16th January 2018 in Colombo. Commercial Bank of Ceylon employees is getting a salary increase on a sliding scale ranging from 31% to 63% as a percentage of the 31/12/2017 salary under the new collective agreement over the three year period.

Commercial Bank Managing Director Mr Jegan Durairatnam and Chief Operating Officer Mr S. Renganathan signed the agreements on behalf of the bank. Representing the CBEU, President T G W Gunawardana and General Secretary S.M.A.R. Senanayake signed the agreement. The agreement covers upward revision of terms and conditions of employment of Non-executive Staff and the Junior Executive Assistants (JEA) and Allied Grades of the Bank. The Memorandum of Understanding covers the Junior Executive Officers (JEO) for a period of 03 years up to 31 December 2020. 

The bank acknowledged that timely signing of these Agreements is indeed furtherance of the Bank’s recognition of CBEU as a key stakeholder representing the employees and its right to collective bargaining, said Mr Isuru Tillakwardana, DGM HR. CBEU President, Gunawardana commended the positive attitude of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon management respecting the trade union rights of the employees and the bank’s commitment to maintaining harmonious industrial relations to boost the productivity of the staff. He thanked the Managing Director Mr Jegan Durairatnam for setting up an excellent corporate culture in the bank to harness employee engagement to the highest levels, enabling to deliver excellent services to banks customers. Gunawardana attributed the bank’s outstanding corporate culture as its success to be the most awarded bank in Sri Lanka. 

CBEU has a longstanding working relationship with Commercial Bank of Ceylon, and the bank has set a new benchmark for all other Commercial banks to follow, as hostilities towards trade unions are counterproductive for business growth; said CBEU General Secretary Ranjan Senanayake, expressing hope to establish similar working relationships with a view to finalize the pending collective agreements expeditiously with all other banks in Sri Lanka.

On behalf of CBEU, President Gunawardana appreciated the support and the cooperation extended by Deputy General Manager Human Resource Manager of the bank, Mr Isuru Tillakwardana and Ms Kamalani Ellawala, Senior Manager HR. Also thanked the Employers Federation of Ceylon for facilitating the negotiation process to reach a settlement mutually beneficial to all the parties.  He reiterated CBEU as a responsible trade union celebrating its Diamond Jubilee in this year (2018), over the past 75 years CBEU contributed as a credible social partner heavily to the growth of the banking industry in Sri Lanka,