Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd., better known as Elephant House, is a company established during British times, in the year 1866 by a German Engineer, Arthur Von Possner & was then known as the Colombo Ice Company. In 1883 it introduced aerated water under the 'Elephant' trademark. It was in 1941 that its name changed to Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd. By then, the company was dealing with dry ice, aerated water, frozen products, milk, ice cream etc. In the 60s & 70s Elephant House vans delivering milk to households in Colombo in the mornings was a familiar sight. In 1970 the company was listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Local products held sway in the 70s & the company prospered, but in the 80s it was faced with stiff competition from imported products & entry of multi-nationals into the country. The company geared itself to meet these challenges. One significant advantage the company had was the presence of a large number of employees who had served the company for long periods of time.
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| Manilal Abeywardena |
Part of the transformation process included the introduction of tried & tested managerial skills to uplift the company. Accordingly, i
n 1987, Kumar Soysa, a former senior Planter & former Competent Authority/CEO of the GOSL owned Colombo Gas Co. Ltd. was placed in charge, & Manilal
Abeywardena, also a former senior Planter/Company Director assisted him at Elephant House. They
were experienced managers who had held responsible positions in the plantation
sector & there was no doubt about their ability to manage the business. The former looked after factory operations while the latter looked after administrative matters. Their policy was to improve productivity, maintain good relations with the employees, & minimize disputes or prevent escalation if any disputes occurred.
Towards the end of 1987, a Personnel Manager from the private sector was
selected as Personnel Manager & a Personnel Manager from the
state sector was selected as Asst. Personnel Manager. The Personnel
Manager handled matters pertaining to managerial, technical & clerical
grades, while the Asst. Personnel Manager handled matters pertaining to the skilled
& unskilled labour grades. The factory
at Kaduwela also had an Asst Personnel Manager to look after labour matters.
At this time, the company had to deal with two formidable Trade Unions. The technical & clerical grades were represented by the Ceylon Mercantile
Union. It was a responsible union & sought to resolve problems by
discussion. They were quite reasonable in their demands. The labour grades were represented by the Ceylon Workers Congress, which was a
Trade Union representing the people in the upcountry plantations. How this
came about is interesting. Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd. earlier had an independent
union to look after the interests of the labour grades. This union affiliated
itself with the JVP Trade Union, which was then trying to infiltrate into the
private sector companies. However, with the JVP showing signs of militant
activity once again in the mid 1980s, workers of the Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd
became members of the Ceylon Workers Congress which was led by Hon. S.
Thondaman, a member of the Cabinet of Ministers, in the J. R. Jayawardena
government. This was a quite unusual move for the CWC, whose membership up to
that time consisted of up-country plantation employees. However, like in the
case of the CMU, they too were quite reasonable in their demands.
Such was the situation when an unforeseen incident occurred. It was alleged
that there was an attempt to intimidate/assault the Manager of the bottling plant by some workers after an
argument with him. An investigation was carried out by the Chief Security
Officer. On the results of the investigation, the management decided to suspend
from service a large number of employees of the Bottling Plant. The letters of
suspension were read out to the employees in the Bottling Plant premises in a
tense atmosphere by the Asst Personnel Manager, in the presence of the security
staff. The employees protested & made
some uncalled-for remarks while shouting slogans, but it was explained to them
that it is the management decision that was conveyed to them. The next day
entry to the Bottling Plant was prohibited.
It did not
take long for the employees in all divisions of the company to announce a
strike, their main demand being that the suspended workers should be
reinstated. With the commencement of the strike, employees gathered outside the
company premises, on the roadside, every day & dispersed in the evening.
In the
meantime, discussions were held with company union representatives, parent
union representatives, but the unions insisted that all employees under
suspension should be reinstated, if they are to resume work. The company
position, as laid out by the holding company of Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd, Messrs
Whittal Boustaed & Co. Ltd. was that disciplinary action had to be taken
against those responsible for the alleged attempt to intimidate/ assault the Manager of the Bottling Plant. The
Employers Federation too intervened, in the negotiations but the position of
both parties to the dispute remained unchanged.
As the
strike was progressing without any end in sight, the company issued written
appeals from time to time for the workers to end the strike and resume work
pointing out that it was causing hardship to them, depriving the customers of
the company products & causing unbearable losses to the company, but there
was no favourable response.
As time
passed without any resolution to the dispute, it turned out to be a prestige
battle between Messrs. Whittal Bousteads & Co. Ltd. & the Ceylon Workers
Congress. Neither party was willing to compromise. The term of office of
President J. R. Jayewardena was coming to an end & a Presidential Election
was due to be held shortly. The Emergency Regulations were in force. It was at
this stage that the Government decided to take over Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd. under
Emergency Regulations & appoint a Competent Authority, Mr. Anura Gunasekera, to manage the company.
With the
take-over by the government, the strike ended & normal business operations
resumed under the Competent Authority.
However,
when the Emergency Regulations lapsed, the government was not yet ready to hand
over the company to its former owners.
The Ceylon Cold Stores
(Possession and Control) Act No. 1 of 1989 was passed & it provided for the Government to continue to hold and possess, for a period of one year
calculated from the date of commencement of the Act (hereinafter referred to as
the "specified period"), the business undertaking of Ceylon Cold
Stores Ltd. , the possession and control of which was taken over by the
Government by regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance. It also
provided for the appointment of a Competent Authority, the Competent Authority,
to take possession and control of property of the said company, & for the Competent
Authority to use or deal with property of business undertaking.
At the end of one year period,
the company was handed over to its former owners.
Since then, the company has progressed by leaps & bounds. ---------------------
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