Financial Times

Sevanagala Sugar executive murdered after factory reopens
A senior executive at the Sevanagala Sugar factory was murdered last week as the situation worsened after President Mahinda Rajapakse stepped into the crisis and ordered the factory to resume work following a month-long strike by workers.

Ajith Dharmaratne, a 55-year old production supervisor and long-standing employee, was discovered dead with gunshot wounds on Wednesday in his quarters inside the factory premises, triggering panic amongst executives and senior managers.

“The situation is critical and the Sevanagala police are not effective,” a worried Sevanagala Sugar chairman Daya Gamage told The Sunday Times FT. There are a few policemen inside the factory premises and outside.

Gamage urged the government to send a special police team from Colombo to probe the murder and called for stepped up security at the site near Embilipitiya, saying the situation was getting out of control.

The factory had re-opened on Tuesday after a meeting last Friday chaired by President Rajapakse where the workers were asked to return to work immediately. Those present at the meeting included company and union representatives, the PERC Director General and JHU MP Rev Omalpe Thero who comes from Embilipitiya. A separate supervisory council was set up by the President comprising representatives from the company, unions and the Labour Commissioner’s Office to keep the President regularly briefed on the developments.

It was the president’s first industrial crisis since winning the November presidential poll. Workers, led largely by the SLFP’s Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya (SLNSS), have been on strike over increased wages claims and allegations of assault.

Sevanagala, privatized in June 2002 and now owned by the Daya Group, supplies 15 percent of the sugar demand in the country. Gamage said the company had completely turned around the once-loss making factory. Sugar yields and sugar production have increasd substantially under private sector management.

He said employees have been threatened in the past by a group of workers who are backed by outside gangs who have weapons. “Security is a serious problem.”

Gamage said the company was hoping to pump in close to Rs 800 million in the village economy in the year ending March 2006 compared to Rs 280 million when the factory was under state control. So far direct losses to the company from the strike are Rs 70 million with a much higher figure for indirect losses.

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