Garment factory workers in Nuwereliya continue protest

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 05:06 GMT]
The workers of a garment factory in Norwood in Nuwerelyia district continue to stage protests against the delay in paying their wages for the past two months, sources in Nuwereliya said. Around 6.3 million rupees in wages remain unpaid and the workers say that they will not allow the manufactured garments to leave the factory until they are paid their due.

The factory administration had promised to pay the wages for February, on 21 March, in a meeting with the representatives of the Workers’ Trade Unions but the promise had not been fulfilled.

Besides, half a month wages for January has not been paid to 476 young men and women garment workers from the plantations in the upcountry and the affected workers had staged several protest demonstrations in the last week and brought the matter to the notice of the Assistant Labour Commissioner in Hatton.

Meanwhile, though the plantation workers in Ratnapura district work 25 days a month they get paid for only 15 days, according to complaints made by them to Ratnapura Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC).

The administrations of the plantations have not given a satisfactory answer to the queries made by the workers.

In some plantations the workers are paid even for less than 15 days for the work done in 25 days a month.

The plantation administrators say that the wages remain unpaid due to the loss caused by the fall in the price for tea and the economic recession.