Sri Lankan workers at large have been demanding a wage which is sufficient enough to meet their basic needs and let them lead a decent living. They are campaigning for a living wage and garment sector workers are joining hands with their Asian comrades to work out an Asian Floor Wage.

Recently in Sri Lanka where the plight of the garment workers was heard and documented in a tribunal hearing, this is what a General Secretary of a union had to say with regard to wages in the island.   

‘I (Saranapala Silva) am the Secretary of the United Federation of Labour. In 1971, when I was young, I was working closely with the trade union as an activist. I remember the prices we paid for items we bought at that time. We had members from most sectors including the garment sector.

I want to show in a practical way the rise in the cost of living. I have picked the basic items of workers and compared the prices over the years.

I have taken 1971 as a base year, for as I remember that was the year in which a Manual Workers’ Collective Agreement was signed covering wages and other terms for the manual workers during that era. In that collective agreement, the starting basic salary for unskilled manual workers was fixed at Rs. 180 per month, Semi-skilled worker at Rs. (Sri Lankan rupees) 195 and Skilled worker at Rs. 210. Further basic cost of living index was fixed at 137.6 (Colombo Consumers’ Price Index) and the cost of living allowance was fixed Rs. 2 per month for each point raise.

I list below (See Table 1) the prices we used to pay for items in our day to day living, compared with the prices we pay today.

The salaries of the workmen did not increase by 100 times. If salaries increased by 100 times the basic salaries should have been 180 x 100 = Rs. 18,000. However the basic salaries remain at less than half of the Rs. 18,000 projected above (currently the minimum wage is Rs. 6,750 per month - US$61.3, at the rate of US$1=100 Sri Lankan rupees). This shows that wages of the workers are going down in terms of forming a living wage.’
The Rs. 180 wage in 1971 was not a decent living wage even in 1971, but the comparison shows that the gap between the wages earned and the reasonable living wage has been widening year by year and decade by decade.

The garment workers are concentrated mainly in Free Trade Zones (FTZ), but we cannot forget the vast number of workers, the majority of them females, employed in companies producing for global supply chains and global brand labels. However the whole of Sri Lanka can be considered an FTZ, as the concessions are extended to investors outside FTZs too.
The Board of Investment in Sri Lanka (BOI) determines the annual wage increase for the workers in the FTZs and BOI-approved companies. They do so only in consultation with the investors and they do not have any consultation with any workers or workers’ organization. The BOI, in their Guideline Handbook provided for investors, states that it works according to ILO principles in relations to the Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining. But in practice we have experienced BOI regional officials interfering with the freedom association of the FTZ workers.  Time and again there have been instances where the workers were advised to form ‘Workers Councils’ instead of trade unions, when workers venture to join or form a trade union. But no workers’ organizations are consulted with regard to the annual wage increase.

In a recent incident, the workers of a sports trophy base manufacturing FTZ company failed in their bargaining for a higher wage increase, and they joined the National Free Trade Union. A few days later one union official/worker was intimidated and suspended from work. The workers were advised by a BOI Regional Official to leave the union and form a Workers Council.   

Table 1 - Comparison of prices in 1971 and Today

In another incident a garment female worker made a complaint to the President of Sri Lanka with regard to an underpayment of wages. The complaint was referred to the relevant authorities and some payment was ordered to be paid for all the workers. However the company delayed payment, claiming that they were not informed of the ruling. The concerned worker visited the Labour Office to inquire the actual result of her complaint. When she returned to factory after meeting the Assistant Commissioner of Labour, the company suspended the worker, claiming that she obtained permission to go to bank but went instead to the Labour Office.  Later the worker was sacked on the charge of having gone to meet the Assistant Commissioner of Labour though she had allegedly asked permission to go to a bank.  Incidentally a retired Assistant Commissioner of Labour is the Labour Advisor to this company. This company produces for major brand labels including a very famous American label. The incident was brought to the notice of the said brand label on the condition that the company would not be penalized with cancellation of the orders. Unfortunately the brand label had cancelled the order to the company.  

The Government has presented a Private Sector Pension Bill in the parliament this April 2011, and plans to pass through before the 2011 May Day. Though the idea of a private sector pension scheme is good the workers and unions are worried and concerned about the actual detailed terms of the pension scheme.

The workers are questioning what a 15% of the basic wage-pension will buy after 10 years of service, or what a 30% of basic wage-pension will buy after 20 years of service.  Unions are studying the Bill with very little time left to study.

The prayer of Sri Lankan workers is that they will soon get a reasonable wage that will be decent enough to lead a decent living – A LIVING WAGE.

Source: National Free Trade Union