Sri Lanka

The funeral of Roshen Chanaka Ratnasekera, who died of injuries received last week after police attacked protesting workers from the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ), took place on Saturday in his village.

On the 24th May about 24,000 workers from Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ)—mostly young female garment workers—walked out and demonstrated against the Rajapakse government’s pension bill. If the pension scheme is introduced they will have to work for at least 10 years first, and will not be entitled to payments until they turn 60. And instead of a lump sum, they will get a small monthly pension, estimated to be only about 1,900 rupees ($US17.27) per month for the low-paid garment workers.

Meeting of the People Tribunal on the 27th and 28th March 2011 to discuss the situation in the Asian garment industry. The talks brought out some recommendations among which was that the UN should include the enforcement of this minimum living wage as one of the "human development indicators" of UN member countries.

In another act of police-state repression, President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has mobilised hundreds of armed police to break a courageous strike by mostly female textile workers in one of the government’s free trade zones near Colombo. Several striking workers have been arrested, and nearly 40 sacked, at Bratex, a Hong Kong-based undergarment producer, in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

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