Speaker 1  00:00
A few months ago, I was sitting at my desk at Advocata working late to finish a report. It was well past office hours. Then a thought occurred to me: as a woman, am I even legally allowed to be here this late? The answer surprised me. As a woman, I am technically not allowed by law to work past 8 p.m. My male colleagues face no such restriction. Earlier this year, Sri Lanka celebrated reforms that were widely reported as allowing women to work at night. But when I looked closer, I discovered those changes only applied to certain occupations in the hospitality and food service industry. As a policy analyst, they did not apply to me. That made me wonder what else were we missing. So I started digging deeper into Sri Lanka's labour laws. What I found was a fragmented legal framework where rights and restrictions often depend on your gender and where you work. For example, under the Shopping Office Employees Act, women cannot work more than nine hours a day, including overtime and meal breaks, while men face no equivalent restriction. The issue is much bigger than night work. It is about whether men and women have equal access to employment opportunities, overtime, career progression, and earning potential. These findings led me to write beyond restrictive work hours, which calls for a single gender-neutral labour framework. This is the kind of work we do at Advocata. We look beyond headlines, follow the evidence, and produce independent, non-partisan policy research that helps shape better public policy. Please support Advocata by scanning the QR code to donate. Your support makes independent, nonpartisan policy research possible.


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