With their 80 to 85 percent female workforce, the 9 Sri Lankan export processing zones (EPZs) largely produce textiles, though also toys, diamonds, tobacco, electronic goods and even tyres.
The new TUW Briefing, based on interviews conducted by journalists within the Sri Lankan EPZs, reveals the indecent living conditions experienced by workers in these factories.
Accommodation is a particularly serious problem for the many young women who have left the countryside to crowd into buildings near the zones, where they rent rooms at exorbitant prices compared to their wages and with very unhygienic conditions, and where they are frequently exposed to sexual harassment, especially on their way to work.
Factory owners are granted tax incentives and other benefits, including favourable terms for provision of water, electricity and IT facilities.
And, above all, the zones can boast that they provide investors with a clearly anti-union environment. The zones are physically impenetrable and look like army bases, with unauthorised persons automatically barred access.
All manner of sackings, harassment, insults and threats are deployed to discourage any stirrings of trade union activism, and employers often collude with police and thugs to scare or attack trade unionists.
"Employers in the zones have a tacit agreement not to recruit anyone known to be a trade unionist", adds Anton Marcus, General Secretary of the union FTZWU, whois quoted in this briefing.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
