Sri Lanka Garment Industry Labor Groups Put Forward New Life Wage Demands

TheApparelIndustryLabourRightsMovement (ALARM), a garment industry in Sri Lanka, recently put forward a proposal. Garment workers in Sri Lanka The minimum wage should be 20000 LKR per month ($180.98).

ALARM said that the People (sTribunal) had pointed out that the minimum wage of the Sri Lanka garment industry was necessary to meet the minimum wage level.

Sri Lankan NGO groups and trade unions, as well as the CommitteeforAsiaWomen, a non-governmental organization based in Bangkok, recently held the people's court as one of the activities of the Asian basic wage movement (AsianFloorWageCampaign) for the basic wage of the whole garment industry in Asia.

In March 30th, PalithaAtukorala, President of the ProgressUnion, said at a press conference in Colombo that a group of nine judges had recently opened a meeting to consider Sri Lanka's garment workers. Appeal case After the public hearing, the judges suggested living wage as the minimum wage for clothing workers in Sri Lanka because the current minimum wage simply can not maintain basic living expenses.

At present, the minimum wage for clothing workers in Sri Lanka is 7900LKR (US $71.48) per month. But garment factories say that the actual wages of workers brought home are much higher than those of the minimum wage.

However, ALARM said that the higher wages of the workers in the garment factories that the workers brought home were included. Overtime pay With the allowance of meals and transportation, the wage level of garment workers should be raised to their living wage of 8 hours a day for a living.

ChamilaThushari, a member of the women's labor rights organization DaBindu, said, "in 2005, we asked for a living wage of 12504LKR (US $113.15) based on the cost of living at that time. At present, according to the Sri Lankan government statistics office, the average monthly cost of a family of four is 41940LKR (US $379.52), so we calculate the monthly wage of 20000LKR for each garment worker.

The people's court has asked the Sri Lankan government to promote the concept of basic wage in order to reach the minimum wage standard for Asian garment producing countries.

CleanClothesCampaign, an international anti sweatshop sweatshop organized by AsianFloorWageCampaign, said that international buyers should also abide by the code of ethics when purchasing garments from Sri Lanka and other countries. They should be responsible for the minimum wage for workers living wages.