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23 February, 2009
The ICEM expressed concern recently at the actions of Sinotex Lanka, Ltd., a garment producer which is owned by Hong Kong-based Cristal-Martin Group. The company has closed two factories after operating 27 years in Sri Lanka.
Members of the Sri Lanka Free Trade Zone and General Services Employees Union, who recently applied for affiliation to the ICEM, have called for international solidarity for the 2,500 workers that have lost their jobs. The ICEM insists that the company make the correct pay settlements to workers, in line with national legislation.
Reports suggest that Sinotex has already made arrangements for the factories to reopen with new workers, a clear illustration of how a company uses the global economic crisis to destroy a trade union. Most of the Sinotex workers are women, and many are migrants from rural villages far from the factories in the Investment Promotion Zone of Katunayake.
Many of the workers were sacked after up to 20 years employment.
The Joint Secretary of the union, Anton Marcus, sent a letter early in February to the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa. That letter urged him to organize “dialogue between social partners in order to overcome the challenges posed by the world economic crisis.”
The legislation that must be upheld is the Termination of Employment of Workmen (Special Provisions) Act No. 45 of 1978. In order for a different settlement to be agreed outside of the terms of this law, it must be carried out under a Memorandum of Settlement, covered in section 12(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act of Sri Lanka. This must be based on negotiations between the employer and employees before the Commissioner of Labour.
Sinotex Lanka, Ltd. has violated all of these legal provisions, summoning workers one by one, and then terminating their services with a small stipend. Neither the union nor the Commissioner of Labour had been consulted, even though the union had requested a meeting.
The ICEM believes this has set a dangerous precedent for other anti-union companies across Sri Lanka. Members of the union at Wheel Works Private, Ltd. have also been threatened by managers with discharge if they do not resign their membership.