“Global trade unions strongly backing strikers at Ansell Lanka, says top union official”
Ansell Lanka has sent the following statement in response to last week’s Business Times story under the above headline:
“In October, a situation developed at our manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka where approximately 25% of our employees initiated a strike protesting the justified disciplinary action taken against an individual who also happened to be the president of the branch union. These protests escalated, and we were left no choice but to terminate 11 employees as a result of serious acts of misconduct, including coercing current employees into joining an unjustified labour action as well as attempting to sabotage and undermine the Ansell business.
On November 26th 2013, we imposed a deadline (6 am that day) for all remaining workers to report back to work and took considerable efforts to advise them of the consequences of not continuing their assigned work schedule. While 261 employees returned to work, 288 of our workers have remained absent and are no longer considered employees of Ansell.
Presently, the trade union leader who was among the initial 11 terminated employees has now taken up the dismissal of the employees who did not report for work by the deadline with the district courts in Gampaha. This issue was then referred to the Supreme Court. As this situation has played out, all disciplinary action taken by the company against the affected employees or other workers at the facility has been done in accordance with local law, accepted labour standards and Ansell’s own Code of Conduct. As Ansell works through this legal process and determines the next steps, the company is firm that it will not reinstate the 11 employees. Simply put, as a global organisation, Ansell is not opposed to the lawful activity of trade unions; however, we cannot permit any abuse of the privileges by these same trade unions.
We have and will continue to maintain the utmost professionalism as this issue reaches a resolution, regardless of any threat or misinformation campaign conducted by a few disgruntled individuals and misinformed organisations. We will continue to manage current and future situations accordingly in order to meet the demands of thousands of customers worldwide in large part due to the dedication of our thousands of Lanka-based employees. Ansell will provide further updates on developments as they transpire.”