Right to Information

Sri Lanka’s Right to Information (RTI) Act comes into effect by bringing with it a promise of open government, citizens’ active participation in governance, and accountability to the people of the country.

Note: The information on the progress related to the investigations of the complaints which forwarded to the Department of Labour and the measures taken in respect of those complaints can directly be obtained by the parties to such complaints. The requests for such information do not need to be made under the Right to Information Act. Further, if a court action has already been taken regarding the matters related to an investigation, the request is forwarded to the Court and upon the permission of the Court information is provided to the respective parties.

However, in the event of an outside party to a complaint requests the information on the complaint or the information on the investigation made in relation to the complaint, it will be ascertained whether a court action has already been taken on the complaint or whether there is a possibility to take a court action in future. Considering the said facts, only the disclosable information will be provided to the requesting party.

Since all the ordinances, Acts, regulations, formats and set of instructions pertinent to all the labour laws have already been published on the web site, requests need not to be made under the Right to information Act to obtain such documents or information on such ordinances, Acts, regulations, formats and set of instructions. Those can directly be obtained though the web site. Moreover, if need further clarification on these matters it can be obtained through your nearest Labour office. Telephone numbers of all the Labour offices have been published on the web site. (This is not included disclosing the information to the media.)

Notice

In accordance with the Right to Information Act, No. 12 of 2016

Requests for Information should be made to the following Information Officer by completing and handing over a request preferably in the manner prescribed in the Form RTI 01 although this is not mandatory.

1. Upon making the request for information, either in verbal or written form obtain the written acknowledgment from the Information Officer.
2. The decision whether to grant the information or not shall be given as expeditiously as possible and in any case within 14 days.
3. If a decision is made to provide the information, the information officer will inform the citizen making the request that the information will be provided on the payment of a fee in accordance with the Fee Schedule prescribed by the Right to Information Commission. If the information is subject to payment of fee, the information shall be provided within 14 days of the payment. Information will be provided within 14 days of the decision if there is no requirement to pay a fee.
4. If, after payment of fees the information cannot be provided within 14 days, the person making the request will be informed that there will be a further extension period – up to a maximum of 21 days – to provide the information and given reasons for the extension.
5. When the request relates to the life and personal liberty of a citizen the information officer shall provide a response to the request within 48 hours.
6. An appeal may be made in situations where,
   1. The Information Officer refuses a request made for information
   2. The Information Officer refuses access to the information on the ground that such information is exempted
   3. from being granted under Section 5
   4. Non -compliance with time frames specified in the Act
   5. The Information Officer granted incomplete, misleading or false information
   6. The Information Officer charged excessive fees
   7. The Information Officer refused to provide information in the form requested
   8. The citizen making the request had reasonable grounds to believe that information has been deformed,
   9. destroyed or misplaced to prevent him/her from having access to the information
7. When making an appeal as mentioned in s.6 of this notice, complete and hand over Form RTI 10, to the Designated Officer. The RTI 10 Form is not compulsory. A citizen making a request can make the appeal by a letter with the basic information indicated in RTI 10 justifying the appeal.