Sri Lanka Workmen's Compensation Calculator — Cap. 139

The Workmen's Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 139) is the century-old statute that fixes the lump-sum compensation a Sri Lankan employer must pay a workman who is injured, contracts an occupational disease, or dies on the job. Unlike the TEWA Act, there is no minimum workforce size — any employer with even one workman falls within §3. The Ordinance has been amended twice in the modern era, by Acts Nos. 10 of 2005 and 27 of 2013, the latter setting the rupee ceilings this calculator currently applies.

Section 4 prescribes four mutually exclusive formulas, one per kind of incapacity, and the Commissioner of Labour picks the one that matches the medical assessment. The calculator implements all four and lets you pick the sub-section from the dropdown at the top of the form:

1. §4(1)(a) Death. Compensation = min(60 × monthly earnings, Rs 1,000,000). The Commissioner apportions the total between dependants under §8; the calculator does not split.
2. §4(1)(b) Permanent total disablement. min(84 × monthly earnings, Rs 1,200,000). Paid as a single lump sum unless the parties agree on half-monthly instalments under §7.
3. §4(1)(c) Permanent partial disablement. The notional PTD figure from step 2 is multiplied by the Schedule II percentage for the listed injury. Schedule II fixes loss-of-arm at 80%, loss-of-leg above the knee at 70%, loss-of-thumb at 25%, loss of an index finger at 10%, and so on. Where the injury is not listed, the medical officer assigns a custom percentage, which the calculator accepts in the override field.
4. §4(1)(d) Temporary disablement. Half the monthly earnings, paid as a half-monthly instalment for every month of incapacity. The Ordinance caps the duration at 260 weeks (five years). The calculator converts weeks to months using the 52 ÷ 12 ≈ 4.333 weeks-per-month convention published in the Department of Labour worked examples.

Monthly earnings are defined in §2 as the average monthly remuneration during the twelve months preceding the accident, including basic wage plus regular allowances. Where service is shorter, the average is taken over the actual service. Gratuitous bonuses, overtime, and one-off payments are excluded by the same section. The calculator takes whatever earnings figure you enter at face value, so do the averaging upstream.

Two procedural deadlines bound the claim. Under §9, the workman (or in fatal cases, the dependants) must give written notice to the employer within 1 month of the accident, and lodge the full claim with the Commissioner of Labour within 2years. The Commissioner has discretion to admit a late claim where the delay was due to mistake, sickness, or other sufficient cause. The Commissioner's order under §16 is the enforceable instrument; appeals lie to the High Court under §24.

The calculator cross-checks its results using two independent formulations of §4. The primary path computes the multiplier first and then caps it; the cross-check (calculateByLongForm) recomputes from the same inputs by applying the cap inside the partial-disablement step. Both paths agree to the rupee on every input the form surfaces.

• Department of Labour, Sri Lanka — Workmen's Compensation Ordinance Division
• Parliament of Sri Lanka — Workmen's Compensation Ordinance (Chapter 139), as amended by Acts Nos. 10 of 2005 and 27 of 2013
• Government Publications Bureau — Workmen's Compensation (Amendment) gazettes

Formulas, ceilings, and Schedule II percentages on this page were last cross-checked against the Department of Labour and Parliament sources on 2026-05-16. The page is reviewed whenever Parliament gazettes a new Workmen's Compensation Amendment Act.