The labour dispute at the Embilipitiya Paper Mills Corporation has reached a crumpling point with hundreds of employees, unpaid for two months, resorting to desperate measures and the minister in charge saying there is little or nothing he can do to save the once flourishing mill.
Recently, the employees took to the streets to make the public aware of their plight of being not paid for the past two months. Last week, they laid siege to the accounts department of the mill, demanding their salaries and threatened to stop vehicular movements through the gate.
A trade union activist, who refused to divulge his name for fear of retaliation, said they had not been paid for the past two months and those who fought on their behalf had been suspended on trumped-up charges.
He said there was a move to pay 50 percent of their May salary but they were not sure about this also.
“We want our full salaries with all the arrears. We have been paid a reduced salary since 2007. First they cut 25 percent of the salary, saying we would be paid a lump sum as arrears once the Treasury allocated funds. Months later, our pay was slashed by 50 percent, but we were once again told that the arrears would be paid as a lump sum once the Treasury gave the money. But this never happened,” the union activist said.
He said the employees petitioned the Human Rights Commission which had ordered the mill authorities to pay the salaries with all dues before April 2008. He lamented that they could not go before the HRC with another complaint because it had become virtually defunct because of the non-implementation of the 17th Amendment.
He charged that the authorities were apparently trying to close down the factory without paying any compensation to the employees.
In response State Resources & Enterprise Development Minister P. Dayaratne, under whose purview the paper mill comes, said it was the Treasury that allocated money for the monthly salaries of the employees but it was apparently showing little interest in allocating funds for the salaries or for a Volunteer Retirement Scheme (VRS).
“This factory was once flourishing and had around thousand employees. Now there are only around 200 employees. The mill is virtually closed and the ministry does not have the required funds to reactivate it unless the private sector steps in,” the minister said.
Mr. Dayaratne said about Rs. 1000 million would be required to reactivate the Embilipitiya mill.
Asked about the plight of the employees, the minister said institutions and factories that came under his ministry were over-staffed and there were no vacancies there for Embilipitiya mill workers. |
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