News

News

Ex-CWE workers lock horns with Ministry
Demand compensation while neglected consumer items perish in closed outlets
More than 3,000 CWE workers left unemployed after the CWE Retails Ltd. was closed last year protested against what they claimed the Government’s failure to grant them adequate compensation.

Since the private conglomerate which ran the CWE retail outlets closed down the chain May last year, 3,157 workers lost their jobs. Among them, 1,995 opted for voluntary retirement with compensation. The rest opted to remain after the Government promised to reopen the chain of outlets.

The Inter Company Employees Union said though the government promised to pay full compensation to the CWE workers only Rs. 125,000 had been paid to each worker. The compensation to workers range from Rs. 125,000 to Rs. 650,000.

Moreover the Government has been compelled to pay compensation to over 1,000 more workers who earlier opted to stay on after it failed to employ them in Lak Sathosa the new chain of retail outlets established under the Mahinda Chinthanaya. So far only nine Lak Sathosa outlets have been opened and 126 workers employed.

A spokesman for the Inter Company Employees Union said the Government had been unable to put the Lak Sathosa programme on a fast track through which it promised to fill the void created by the closure of the CWE retail shops.
One hundred and fifty eight CWE retail outlets were closed after the private sector companies abandoned the venture citing financial losses.

The protesting workers urged the government to categorically state when exactly the balance compensation would be paid. Meanwhile, Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ministry Secretary Dr. R.M.K. Ratnayake said the government had already paid Rs. 250 million to the CWE workers under the voluntary retirement scheme and that it would pay Rs. 400 million more in due course.

He also said the government was paying a consolation payment of Rs. 4,000 to each CWE worker who lost their livelihood after the closure. Dr. Ratnayake charged that the trade unionists who now urge for compensation didn’t protest when the private companies closed the CWE and put the workers into difficulty. He added that several CWE workers forcibly detained him in a room for three hours demanding compensation and that he had to call the police to bring the situation under control.

The Inter Company Employees Union urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to intervene to expedite the payment of compensation. Meanwhile, authorities have failed to take any action to make use of the consumer items, valued at around Rs. 10 million, lying in the closed CWE outlets. These items include rice, sugar, milk, cordials, cosmetics and electrical items.

However, most of the food stuffs have exceeded their expiry dates after having remained unattended for almost a year. Unsold goods could be seen especially in the main CWE outlets in Welisara and Jawatte. The Welisara outlet which was once also maintained as a distribution centre gives a neglected look with gunny bags of rice, sugar and dhal scattered in a locked room. The main sales centre is also full of discarded consumer items.

Dr. Ratnayake said these items belonged to the private companies which managed the CWE outlets before they were closed and that Lak Sathosa could not take the responsibility for them.

Top

Back to News