The Covid epidemic has put a strain on the Sri Lankan garment industry. Garment industry workers were particularly affected. Out of that, the people who worked for the Man Power system were in a desperate situation.
But now the garment industry is booming. Make a profit. But they do not. They still say that the industry has collapsed because of Covid. But is that the truth?
We contacted Anton Marx, Co-Secretary of the Free Trade Zones and Public Service Union, to discuss this. This is the discussion he had with us.
The apparel industry collapsed recently due to Covid. Explain the current situation here?
Before the global Covid epidemic in March 2020, there were only 74,000 vacancies for machine operators in the country. But no one came forward. No one came forward for these vacancies due to low salaries, low care, problems in the workplace etc.
In the past, when the elder sister came to work in the trade zone, she would bring her younger sister and relative to other jobs. But not today. Because these factory owners are not trying to attract their employees. They treat female employees as low paid. Less concern.
During the period of good governance, some MPs had even submitted cabinet reshuffles to bring in workers from abroad. Do more work for that low salary.
In the first wave of Covid, the owners had to close the factories. As a result of the government’s hasty decision, nearly 10,000 workers were left destitute. Stuck in accommodation. There was no place to eat or drink because of the curfew. Later, when the media came to know about this, our trade unions got together and discussed with the Army Commander and arranged for these workers to be sent home by army buses.
Man Power employees were the most helpless there. Investment Promotion Zonal officials were reluctant to take their responsibility. That’s how he treated these Man Power employees.
When these factories reopened in April, Health recommended that 50% be called to work. The problem that arose then was that when he called half of the employees to work, the other people in the house could not pay their salaries. There too we intervened and asked them to transfer and bring all of them to work. Here we signed a tripartite agreement with the Ministry of Labor, Factories and Trade Unions. That no worker could lose his job because of that coward. Accordingly, we were able to secure the jobs of many employees. This proposal was successful especially as the Presidential election was imminent.
What is the status of a garment worker today?
In fact, the minimum wage in the garment industry is only 10,000 rupees. Attendance Allowance / Target Allowance / Transportation Allowance / Overtime etc. will be added to get them a higher salary. This was a blessing to some factory owners when the Labor Department told them to pay at least Rs. 14,500 during the corona season.
They began to slash the maids’ transportation allowances, targets, attendance allowances, and even meals. Flee without telling them. Then they get bored and quit their jobs. There is no need to resign again and pay compensation. The other method is to use the letter of appointment and transfer him / her to another branch which is too far / difficult for him / her to go.
They do this work in groups. If one employee does not come while working as a team, the whole line will be disrupted. This is how he treats such an important group today.
We have received reports that more than 55,000 employees have lost their jobs during the Covid period. But at present the Labor Department has only 12,000 complaints. This is where the Employees Provident Fund comes in every month. Through it you can easily find people who have lost their jobs. But what they did was to place an advertisement in the newspaper asking for information about it. They still do not know how many people lost their jobs.
How do employees react to unions?
There are about 8 million people in the garment industry who are engaged in formal and informal employment. But their contribution to the unions is only 5%. But after the Covid epidemic, about 3,000 new members joined the unions.
They are not allowed to join trade unions from the factories where they work. At the same time their fundamental rights have been violated. They have prevented them for fear of seeking various privileges through these unions.
These factories now have the same quantity of orders as when the first wave of Covid came to Sri Lanka. Exporting. They get more production with less employees. Employees are afraid to open their mouths to these.
The report of Brandix, which started the second wave of Covid, has not been released yet. Why?
During the second wave of Covid, more than 4,000 workers became infected. But these institutions did not care about these. They wanted the target.
The Ministry of Labor launched a separate investigation to find out the distribution of this Brandix cluster. The police launched an investigation on the orders of the Attorney General. But the reports of both have not been published till today. Fear that it will be a problem for these institutions. Because if these are put out, foreign buyers will not take these orders as they are dirty clothes. Because they need clean clothes that take good care of the employees. (clean clothes campaign) Foreigners do not like clothes with sweat / tears.
Especially today some of these factories have former Army Commanders / Army officers in the human rights wing. What do they know about human resource management? They do not know the industrial relationship. Today the human resources sector is failing because of this.
Will Geneva disrupt the apparel industry?
That’s a fake victim. This system will not collapse because of Geneva. Products are being ordered in large quantities today. That is the truth.
In fact, there are no garment factories in our country yet. Tailor shop. They import everything from the needle. Because of this it takes more than three months to place an order. But in countries like China they have everything so they place the order in as little as 14 days.
From March to May alone, these workers lost $ 24 million during the last coup. We say take steps to provide it to employees even during this time of year. Finally, we would like to say that we are ready to take this to the international arena if the factory owners do not take steps to give good treatment / respect to the employees.