ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday September 23, 2007
Vol. 42 - No 17
Financial Times  

Garment workers in ‘Living Wage’ campaign to raise wages

By Dilshani Samaraweera

Garment workers are launching on a campaign in October asking for what they call a ‘Living Wage’ because current wages, given the rate of increase in cost of living, are not enough to live on.

The campaign for a living wage in the apparel sector is led by the Apparel Industry Labour Rights Movement (ALaRM), a coalition of trade unions and worker’s rights organisations.

“The main objectives of the campaign are to demand a salary increment of Rs. 2,500 from the forthcoming BOI salary increments in November, for the year 2008 and to ensure the payment of the minimum wage of Rs 5,000 and the Budgetary Relief Allowance of Rs.1,000 to each employee,” said Ms Ashila Niroshini Mapalagama, legal coordinator at the labour division of Right to Life, a member of ALaRM.

Working but poor
Salaries of garment workers were increased earlier this year but activists and workers say salaries are not enough to live on.
A survey in 2005, conducted by ALaRM, found that the minimum monthly salary of a garment worker in the Free Trade Zones should actually be Rs 12,504, to have a decent life and send home some money. The survey found that a worker outside the zone required a salary of Rs.10,183.

But salaries of most garment workers are still below Rs 10,000 per month.

“In general, most of the garment workers, even with over time and Saturdays and Sundays and Poya day work will not get Rs 10,000 per month. Most of them earn about Rs 8,000 – Rs 9,000 per month with all the over time,” said Ms Padmini Weerasuriya, coordinator of the Women’s Centre, a women’s rights organisation. With costs of essential items continually increasing, workers are spending increasing portions of their incomes on bare basics. When workers do not make enough to cover costs, many that do not receive all three meals at their factories, cut down on food, leading to poor nutrition. Poor nutrition in turn, contributes to lower productivity.

“When what they earn is not enough, they start cutting down on things that can’t be noticed from outside. The first thing they cut down on is their food. There was one girl who cooked herself one meal for the day and for five days she ate only rice and wattakka (pumpkin). It’s pathetic but we found lots of examples like this in our survey,” said Mapalagama.

“Right now garment workers get a minimum salary of Rs 6,000. This is with the stipulated basic minimum wage of Rs 5,000 and another Rs 1,000 from the Budgetary Relief Allowances Act. But the question is, whether their total salaries are enough to make ends meet,” said Ms Chamila Thushari, from Da Bindu, a group involved in rights for women workers.

“Garment workers are mainly girls. A lot of them work in the Free Trade Zone and are boarded and not living at home. So they have additional expenses like rent, food, travel expenses and other things they need. But they also have to have some money to send home to their families. The salaries they earn now are not enough to do all this,” said Thushari. Working under these conditions say activists will not benefit the country as people will remain poor and there is no quality of life improvement through employment.

Vacancies and wages
The garment sector is already faced with vacancies that it cannot fill.

“There are an estimated 15,000 vacancies in the Katunayake trade zone alone. In all three trade zones, it is estimated that there are around 30,000 vacancies,” said Thushari.

The main reason for the unfilled vacancies, say activists, is the poor salary.

“The salary is not worth so many hours of hard work,” said Thushari.

Global garment markets are becoming increasingly price competitive. So to remain in business, many Sri Lankan garment factories are trying to increase output and bring down unit costs. But the strategy is not working because of the rate of increase of cost of living in the country. Costs - of both garment factories and garment workers - are going up regardless, eating into company profits and incomes of workers. Overall, for workers, longer hours of work to increase output, are not leading to better quality of life.

To survive, garment workers are asking for pay increases.

Activists point out that the starting salary of a government servant is Rs. 11,730, but a garment employee that works longer hours and shows higher productivity, takes home less.

“Private sector workers live in the same country, they spend the same amount on food and clothing. So why treat them differently? That is why we say private sector workers should also have at least the same amount as a basic salary. These people are the ones earning foreign exchange for this country,” says Weerasuriya from the Women’s Centre.

In 2006 garment exports, the work of nearly 300,000 garment workers, brought US$ 3 billion into Sri Lanka. So from October to end-November, thousands of garment workers are to start on a variety of events from lamp lightings, to demonstrations to awareness rallies, to put pressure on companies and the government, to increase their wages. But the big question is, given that the garment trade is losing competitiveness, what is plan B for Sri Lanka to generate jobs and bring in foreign exchange?

 

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