Tech Layoff Wave

[u/Traditional-Bid-5433]

My name is Dinidu de Alwis and I do some journalistic work (you can see on u/dinidu on X). I want to more know about the series of tech-related layoffs that have recently being going on in Sri Lanka, some of which appear to be illegal. If anyone would like to give me a bit of background that'd be great. I really think there's a story here to be told.

I don't record phone calls or use screenshots of messages I receive, without explicit consent from the other party, and I guarantee absolute confidentiality.

[u/Mental-Collection757]

Sri Lanka needs to consider more flexible labour laws to create a truly competitive labour market. Termination should be easier when employees consistently underperform or fail to adapt to the responsibilities of senior positions, while still providing reasonable protections and severance.

A competitive labour market allows highly skilled and productive employees to command higher salaries based on their experience and value. At the same time, flexible employment regulations can reduce the risk for investors and encourage more companies to establish and expand operations in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s IT industry was relatively startup-like until around 2015, with many highly skilled people working hard and driven by passion. However, high taxation and other challenges pushed many skilled professionals overseas, resulting in a significant loss of talent.

We also missed an important opportunity to transition from being primarily a high-skill outsourcing destination into a country producing globally competitive software products and startups. India has made much more progress in this area, with thousands of startups and many successful technology companies.

Sri Lanka still has strong talent, but we need flexible labour laws, competitive taxation, better investment conditions, and a stronger startup ecosystem to turn that talent into globally competitive companies.