Plus

Plus

It’s a long, unending grind for the Pettah salesmen who work seven days of the week
WORK, WORK, WORK
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi
They work seven days a week, without a single day off to wash clothes, have a bath, visit family or friends or just relax. This is the plight of thousands of workers in the Pettah, surprisingly not the naatamies (coolies) who toil, loading and unloading heavy gunnies from lorries but the salesmen of Sea Street famed for its gold and Main Street popular for its textiles.

"The coolies have been given Sunday off by the traders of Old Moor Street and adjacent areas but not the salesmen of the mudalalis of Sea Street and Main Street," explains K. Palaniandy, President of the Old Moor Street Traders' Association who is set to fight for the rights of these salesmen.

The sales people and stores boys who do all the odd jobs are mostly from long distances away. Their homes are in the hill country or the north. They work, eat and live in the shops themselves, with cramped and airless sleeping areas either at the top, three floors up or in dinghy quarters at the rear.

Why not close on Sunday as a general rule? This is Mr. Palaniandy's plea to all the mudalalis. "If everyone closes, then we will close too. Otherwise we lose business," M.B.S. Rajan who owns several shops, told The Sunday Times at his wholesale outlet on Bodhiraja Mawatha. With nine employees from all over the country in that shop alone, he says they prefer to work all seven days and take a month off later. "Three years ago there was a suggestion that we should close on Sunday. Now we close half day," he said.

The same rule must apply to all, stressed K. Logeswaran, the Manager of Ram Brothers, a large textile company with many branches, amidst the bustle of brisk New Year sales at their Main Street outlet that has a staff of 100.

If five shops close on Sunday and five remain open, is it fair, he counters. "Then our customers will go to the other shops and we will lose business. Our employees take their off days the way they like it. Some work for two months and take the off days at the end of that to visit their families. We pay double OT on Sunday and one and a half on Saturday."

There are about 25,000 boys doing different jobs in the Pettah. Around 15,000 now have Sunday off. For most of the others the shops have become prisons. Some of them get a few days off after many months but that too is dependent on the mudalali's whim, says Mr. Palaniandy who has become a wealthy trader after being a coolie.

Some salesmen in establishments in the Pettah are compelled to work all seven days. There is no system. They are "very scared" to come out and agitate for an off-day per week, stresses Mr. Palaniandy relating the typical lifestyle of these workers. "They come to Colombo when they are around 10 years old and work very hard. Then they get married in their villages and can't bring their families here. They do not have even the basic luxury of going home once in a way. That's very bad for their family life," he says adding that their monthly wage works out to between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000.

While S. Mylvaganam, a partner of Jaya Nithyakalyani, a gold shop that employs about 25 refused to comment, K. Shankar of Ramya Jewellers said his two employees worked on Sunday but took alternate days off during the week.

What is the problem, asked Mr. Shankar, adding that they pay overtime, EPF and ETF and also provide accommodation and food to the workers. A salesman's day begins around 6 in the morning and winds down about 9 in the night after all the sales are over and the shops have been arranged for the next day. For some, there is work even after 9 p.m. with the textile boys having to fold and stack the bales of cloth and iron out the creased rolls. "They have only mats to lay their weary heads and poor food. Eka hoddak denne," says Mr. Palaniandy. It is a humanitarian issue and we should get some standards, he urged.

Pow-wow after New Year
We will summon a meeting of the traders after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year to discuss the issues about the workers' holidays, the Commissioner General of Labour Mahinda Madihahewa told The Sunday Times.

Explaining that these workers come under the Shop and Office Employees Act, he said they are entitled to one and a half off-days per week usually given on Saturday and Sunday. They could also be granted on any other days as long as they are within the week. "If the employee does not want a weekly holiday but wishes to accumulate the days and take about a month off, special permission has to be sought from the Labour Department by the establishment," he stressed.

If employees work on their off days they have to be paid overtime and also granted lieu leave, he added.

Hardly goes home
This is 57-year-old Kadirgamar Murugesu Pillai from Point Pedro who is a trusted employee at M.B.S. Rajan's wholesale outlet down Bodhiraja Mawatha.

For seven years he has hardly taken any leave, says Mr. Rajan proudly, showing him off to The Sunday Times. "I take just a day or two about once a year or not even that," says Murugesu who works as the cashier and handles all money matters in the shop, which sells anything and everything except rice and flour.

Married with three grown up children, he sees them and his wife on and off either when he goes on sales trips to Point Pedro or when they come to Colombo. "Duty leave, that's what it is," he smiles.

In 2004 he went home just thrice for one day at a time - for a kovil festival and two other family gatherings. "It's only a wedding or a funeral that I go to," he says.

Back to Plus