Factory closures or staff downsizing are common these days especially in the garment sector as Sri Lanka faces a twin crisis - an economic slump here and a global one forced by the US crisis. “Amongst the companies that are downsizing, the MAS Group and Brandix feature on top,” an industry official said. He said that large firms such as MAS and Brandix are badly hit cost-wise and they are top heavy as they have been for sometime.

A MAS source told The Sunday Times FT that the companies in the group have put a ‘temporary freeze’ on recruitment. “Any company in the group which has ‘excess’ staff will put those staff in positions where they can carry out another good job of work,” he said, adding that at times they are given a larger role to play. “Many people are migrating as well. Currently we need to manage the (human) resources better as we have put a cap recruitment,” he noted.

An industry source said some top names have left the industry from both MAS and Brandix. He said that it is notable that so far only the top management has been extended the golden handshakes as they take away the fattest cheques home. “At present, it makes sense to get the top seniors to vacate as this would help the companies cut costs considerably,” he noted.

He said that during the past couple of months, there were many farewell parties organised for some of the topdogs in the industry – majority from MAS and Brandix. “Some left the garment industry altogether to take up some lucrative assignments abroad,” he added.

The top companies are examining their staff requirements closely. “We are strongly ‘looking’ at manpower requirements. No company would want to fill up a vacancy without actually seeing whether the new person can add on to the company. Earlier when we did not face the challenging times that we are currently facing, we were not so strict and had somewhat excessively hired,” the MAS official said.
The industry analyst said that as a result garment firms were always ‘top heavy’. “No one is on a growth mode at present. This is not only true to garment companies. Many firms are freezing recruitment,” he added.

He said that about two years ago, Brandix too had extended Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS) to staff. “When staff becomes senior, we do this as sometimes the firms need younger blood. Recently Brandix had also thought of downsizing,” he added.