Wales Tourism and Visit Planning

Holiday In Wales COLOMBO -- In Sri Lanka's Batticaloa district, 303 km north-east of here, hundreds of garment export factory workers, mainly Tamil women, work long hours every day without break.

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Holiday Wales Some of the factories stipulate the number of visits that can be made to the toilet during working hours. In some, employees are even banned from drinking water during working hours.

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Cottage Holiday In Wales One of the factories issued a warning letter to woman who filled a bottle with drinking water during working hours.

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Caravan Holiday In Wales The factories are run by both local and foreign employers, producing for export. Rights groups accuse them routinely violating labour laws.

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Camping Holiday Wales Instead of preventing this, rights activists allege that the government now wants to make it easier for these employers to push their workers even harder.

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Accommodation Holiday Wales Rights activists are unhappy with the Labour Ministry's plan to amend labour laws to introduce 80 hours of overtime every month for factory workers, including those in export processing zones (EPZ).

Holiday Last Minute Wales Labour unions too have expressed concern that the new rules would make it easier for factory owners to make their employees work longer hours at low wages.

Catering Holiday Self Wales The employers are already accused of extracting more than 100 hours of overtime every two months, ignoring the 1942 Factory Ordinance, which permits a total of 100 hours of such work annually.

Holiday Wales Walking ''If overtime is legalised, employers will have a better clout to repress workers and exploit them more,'' says Anton Marcus, General Secretary of the Free Trade Zones Workers' Union.

Family Holiday Wales Marcus warns that these amendments will make it possible to cut the workforce by 33 percent. The Labour Department has dismissed Marcus' fears as unfounded.

Holiday Riding Wales Though overtime rules are often violated, at present, workers can challenge this in court.

Adventure Holiday Wales However, unions fear that if overtime is legally increased, 80 hours per month will be the ''compulsory or forced overtime'' that will be extracted from them.

Holiday Park South Wales The change in the law was mooted in July 2000. Labour leaders say it was deferred in view of the subsequent national elections last year.

Cottage Holiday Wales According to the government's Board of Investment, the change in law is necessary to make Sri Lankan exporters competitive.

Holiday In Wales The exporters supply to the big international brands who have to comply with codes of conduct requiring them to abide by labour laws in producing nations. A third of all garments produced for export are sent to the European Union and most of the rest go to the United States.

Holiday Wales Marcus says that the government has agreed to legally increased overtime hours ''to circumvent European and U.S. customer demands to adhere to the labour laws in the manufacturing countries.''

Cottage Holiday In Wales Rights groups and labour leaders allege that the legalisation of longer hours of overtime, will lead to greater exploitation of workers.

Caravan Holiday In Wales The Labour Department, the Board of Investment and investors justify the long hours of overtime by saying that workers want to earn more.

Camping Holiday Wales However, rights groups and unions say the workers are forced to work longer because they are not paid a living wage.

Accommodation Holiday Wales The average monthly salary of a garment factory worker ranges between 25 and 35 U.S. dollars.

Holiday Last Minute Wales However, given the cost of living, a worker needs at least 80 dollars a month to meet basic needs. With overtime, workers earn at most 56 dollars per month.

Catering Holiday Self Wales A study of Sri Lanka's Export Processing Zones, which was published by the U.N.'s International Labour Organisation (ILO), agreed with the criticism.

Holiday Wales Walking ''More that 80 percent of workers in the three EPZ's indicated that if it were possible, they would leave their jobs to become self employed or work in other occupations,'' it said.

Family Holiday Wales ''Their sentiments in that regard may be attributed to the difficulties in getting leave, the long hours of work, low wages and health problems,'' the study added.

Holiday Riding Wales The ILO stipulates tripartite resolution of labour disputes, involving employers, trade unions and the Labour Department.

Adventure Holiday Wales However, workers and the Free Trade Zone Workers Union allege that the unions consulted at these discussions do not represent them.

Holiday Park South Wales The unions consulted are those affiliated to the ruling party and have no women representatives. Therefore, they allege, the three parties actually represent the same interest.

Cottage Holiday Wales Appeals to permit the Free Trade Zone Workers Union to participate in these discussions have been refused.

Holiday In Wales Sri Lanka set up its first free trade zone in the year 1978. The entire country was declared a free trade zone in the year 1002. Investors were attracted with long-term tax holidays, duty free import of vehicles and interest free loans.

Holiday Wales By the year 1998, the country had 280,000 workers employed in 890 export factories. Eighty percent of them are single women aged between 16 and 29 years.

Cottage Holiday In Wales Rights groups say that women workers are preferred because they are seen as a more flexible, easy to manipulate and less likely to demand their rights.

Caravan Holiday In Wales It is common for 10 to 12 women workers to live in a single, small room. About 30 women share one toilet. Water is scarce and transport at night is a problem. The women often complain of sexual harassment.

Camping Holiday Wales ''In some factories, once a female worker gets married, she is deprived of promotions and subtly discouraged from continuing work,'' says Padmini Weerasuriya of the Women's Centre, a group working with free trade zone employees.

Accommodation Holiday Wales The right to organise and bargain is severely restricted even though this right is recognised in the Constitution.

Holiday Last Minute Wales Till last year, workers in the export zones were forbidden from forming unions. It was only last year that the Free Trade Zone Workers' Union was formed following an amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act.

Catering Holiday Self Wales Employers are also accused of using the country's emergency regulations to repress workers.

Holiday Wales Walking The Sri Lankan government declared a national emergency in May 2000 to fight the Tamil Tiger insurgency in the north. The export industry was declared an essential service under the emergency law.

Family Holiday Wales This made it easier for Venture International -- a Canadian- Korean joint venture in the export zone -- to sack more than 400 workers who resorted to trade union action.

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