The Island (subscription), Sri Lanka
Last week a labour union filed a petition with the Human Rights Commission, alleging that a garment factory had closed down after falsely giving reasons that to do so was because of lost orders caused by the global financial crisis.
The union claims the factory took this measure to rid itself of labour unions.
The Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union together with their members whose services were terminated by Sinotex Lanka Ltd under the pretext of global economic crisis, filed a petition against the Commissioner General of Labour and other officials about the violation of Human Rights of 2,500 workers.
“This is clear evidence of how the employers in connivance with the Government authorities abused the labour laws and used the global crisis as a pretext to suppress workers’ rights,” Anton Marcus Joint Secretary of the union alledged in a statement.
He said the union had addressed this matter to President Rajapaksa and hoped he would intervene and take appropriate action against the authorities concerned.
