Union League member Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees' Union (FTZ & GSEU) in Sri Lanka calls on League supporters to sign their petition to the Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Sirisena, to ensure that the Department of Labour protect workers' fundamental right to organize.
Show your support for workers' fundamental rights in Sri Lanka! The workers are standing up to the interests of large, highly profitable corporations who align themselves with the governments of Producing Countries to drive conditions and wages down for their own profit!
"We are disturbed to learn from very responsible sources that the department under its Commissioner General of Labour has been willfully ignoring and neglecting the implementation of provisions of the Industrial Dispute Act No.56 of 1999 and ignoring rulings and decisions of the Wages Boards, giving undue advantage to employers. We learn that the department ignores written complaints and often delay making decisions giving time for employer investors to victimise and also terminate employment of workers who initiate organising trade unions.
Organising into trade unions of their choice is a fundamental right all employees in Sri Lanka should enjoy without hindrance, under the Constitution of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government and the State is bound by the UN Human Rights Charter too that guarantees the right to be members of legal trade unions. Most recently, your government agreed to abide by all ILO core conventions in regaining the EU GSP ‘Plus’ that requires your government to ensure and safeguard the right of workers to organise and bargain collectively.
The new role adopted by the labour department, as we see and understand, is totally contradictory to all the commitments the Sri Lankan government has undertaken in establishing a democratic, sovereign State of the 'People'."
- Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees' Union (FTZ & GSEU)
Petition: Stop Creating Slave Labour In Sri Lanka - Enforce Labour Rights
We stand in solidarity with our Sri Lankan partners!
