Financial Times

Travails of Sri Lanka's garment workers
Workers in Sri Lanka's Free Trade Zones (FTZ's) start work in the morning "never knowing how long they will have to stay in the factory until they can go home," according to a report on worker's rights in Sri Lanka.

"Justice for All: The Struggle for Workers Rights in Sri Lanka," a report by the Solidarity Centre launched in Colombo last week, notes that FTZ workers often suffered from chronic physical and visual ailments due to repeated, strong use of hands and eyes for hours at work among other strenuous assignments.

"They often must walk to their boarding houses in the dark with constant worries about their personal safety," said the report released at a launch attended by US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead. "Production quotas are impossible to meet during a regular workday with full break and lunch periods, so they must skip lunch and work through their breaks to meet these quotas."

The study by international worker rights researcher Lance Compa noted that FTZ workers faced constant demand for daily and weekend overtime, often reaching 12 and 14 hours per day.

"They build up personal leave time only to have management deny them the right to use the leave when they wish, even for events like the wedding of a brother or a sister." Detailing out descriptions of working conditions, the researcher also found that workers have sharp restrictions on bathroom use, conversation, rest breaks and other rights. The report examines the damage caused by t

wo decades of conflict and reviews in detail the country's labour laws. Between 2001 and 2003, Compa interviewed dozens of workers, union leaders, government officials, employer representatives, and advocates from non-governmental organisations in addition to making visits to the FTZs.

Many of the violations of worker rights occur in the FTZs. "The EPZs (FTZs) are fenced and guarded in military fashion by Board of Investment security types. Most factories have their own security agents as well. Trade unionists cannot enter the zones to distribute materials or meet with workers," the report said.

Sridevi, an apparel factory worker at the Katunayake zone, is quoted as saying that most workers are afraid to take union literature to work "If the managers see us with a union paper, they think we are trying to organise and they will harass us and say, 'we are watching you'."

On accommodation, Compa reported that owners of boarding houses typically rent these places to four, six or eight workers who cook and sleep in the single hot, crowded room with all sharing one bathroom.

Workers who live further away from the zone travel on local trains that pull into the Katunayake station with banners across their cars saying "Productivity Brings Prosperity," Productivity: A Constant Search for Perfection," and "Better Living Through Productivity."

Trade unions reach out to workers through small centres they have opened near FTZs. However only a tiny percentage of workers are reached in this fashion, the report said adding that workers are often too tired or stressed out to come for a meeting having worked for anything between 10 to 14 hours a day.

The report recommended that Sri Lankan authorities should develop rules for reasonable access by trade union organisers and representatives inside the zones, and that BOI security guards and other agents of companies should be prohibited from intimidating, coercing, following, examining, questioning or spying.

Compa listed out in detail the problems faced by workers in forming unions inside and outside the zones, citing many examples of intimidation by the management and how pro-union workers are sacked. The report also talks of the breakthrough by unions in the famous Jaqalanka case.

After a global campaign against the Sri Lankan garments manufacturer for refusing to recognise a union, Jaqalanka reached a historic agreement with the Free Trade Zone Workers Union (FTZWU), accepting the FTZWU as the union, respecting workers rights and promising not to stifle the rights of workers or union members.

Compa also slams Workers Councils' citing workers as saying this is a farce with no real rights for the workers, though it is supposed to represent them. Suggesting a roadmap on worker rights in Sri Lanka, the researcher says that Sri Lanka has the potential for becoming a pacesetter among developing countries in South Asia, if it can maintain and advance democratic government and effectively enforce laws that are in line with international standards.

The report said that Sri Lanka's most favourable niche in the global economy is not as a lowest-cost producer but as a higher-quality producer. Sri Lanka can position itself as a country where "Made in Sri Lanka" means made under decent working conditions, where workers' rights are respected, so that brand name retailers can source and consumers can buy with confidence that core labour standards prevail.

"From such a foundation, Sri Lanka could seek and obtain favourable trade arrangements with the United States, Europe and other developed countries and regions with large consumer markers," it said, adding that there is the false belief that the US labour movement opposes trade and trade agreements.

It recommended that the trade union movements in the United States and Sri Lanka should maintain close collaboration to assist each other and to press their governments for action on achieving shared goals of respect and effective enforcement of fundamental principles and rights at work.

Eranthi Premaratne from the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), who presented a critique of the report, said while the study had many commendable features relating to worker's rights, it was biased towards the workers. "The employers' views are missing from this report," she said. - Feizal

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