Trade unionists, both in the apparel sector and elsewhere have vowed to continue their protests until the private Pension Scheme Proposals is taken out from the Order Paper.“The Government is talking about amending the proposals. That won’t do. It has to be withdrawn completely,” Saman Ratnapriya with the Joint Trade Union Alliance (JTUA) said.
“This is a draconian piece of legislation that has to be shot down at the earliest and it has been drafted on the dictates of global funding agents such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he charged.
He added that the blood of Roshen should not have been spilled in vain, and that he will be remembered as a martyr who gave his young life so that the rights and benefits of the workers could be protected in the future.
“Should the authorities take up a ‘gung ho’ policy towards the workers, it will prove to be counter-productive in many ways,” he added.
He said certain sections of the Government have already begun blaming the Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) for the killing at the FTZ. “If this is the case- can the authorities explain the arrests of two policemen in this connection?” Mr. Ratnapriya asked.
Concluding, he said, “The Government must make a public apology to the people for what happened at the FTZ instead of finding scape goats like it has already done by arresting two policemen.” |
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