“I came to Colombo with a dream. Now I have lost it,” the young garment factory worker said, sounding dejected.
She left her hometown in Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, six years ago to take up a job at the Free Trade Zone in Katunayake, about 35km north of capital Colombo. “The current cost of living is so high that I barely manage to survive, let alone save a penny,” she said, requesting anonymity. For many like her in the island nation, the economic crisis of last year has hardly let up, although shortages have eased and queues have vanished.
At the end of June, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka pointed to a “sharp decline” in headline inflation, to 12%, and a decrease in food inflation to 4.1%. Except, the figures are in relation to last year’s dramatic rise in prices, as headline inflation surged past 70%, and food inflation hit almost 95%. While cold data may show a reduction in the rate of inflation, consumers do not feel any relief yet. Especially since wages and incomes, across most sectors, have remained stagnant.
Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, which took off on a big scale after the country liberalised its economy in 1977, has proved crucial to both its economy and labour force. It is the island’s largest foreign exchange earner — $5.6 billion in 2022 — and employs nearly a million people, mostly women, directly and indirectly across some 400 factories. Garments made in Sri Lanka are exported largely to the U.S. and the EU, to big brands, including, C&A, GAP, H&M, Marks and Spencer, PVH and Victoria’s Secret. The growth and global reach of the industry would make for a great “success story”, if only workers did not have their own story to share.
“Even if we work really hard and make some 30,000 rupees a month (roughly ₹9,340) with all the incentives, it is worth much less today. We are unable to afford the very basic life we lived before the crisis,” said another worker, explaining how her salary has drastically shrunk in real value. “A small bun at the tea shop round the corner used to cost 50 [Lankan] rupees (roughly ₹13). Now it’s 150!” She, too, requested not to be named, fearing punishment for speaking to the media. “Even if this job is hard and pays much less than I need, I can’t afford to lose it. I must somehow support my children,” the mother of two said.
The apprehension of workers is not baseless. Far from isolated personal experiences, their accounts reflect the predicament of scores of workers employed in Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, according to unions and labour rights organisations.
“The financial pressure on workers, especially manpower [contractual] workers, is very high. Despite their best efforts braving exacting working conditions, their wages are just not enough to cope in our country’s current situation,” contended Ashila Dandeniya, Executive Director of Stand Up Movement. “Desperate to supplement their incomes so they can support their families, many young women are taking up commercial sex work in the area. And there are many challenges that come with that,” she said. Instead of spending on “so-called” CSR activities, manufacturers need to pay workers a fair living wage, in her view.
Manufacturers are yet to heed to the demand. For Sri Lanka’s garments sector, the first big blow came well before the economic meltdown, in the form of COVID-19. As factories were forced to shut, workers were left in the lurch. When operations resumed, many found themselves jobless. Worker unions have estimated about 50,000 job losses in the industry through the pandemic and economic crisis in Sri Lanka. Those who remained had their share of difficulties waiting.
In a study on the impact of the pandemic on Sri Lanka’s apparent sector, Shyamain Wickramasingha, research fellow at the University of Sussex, U.K., found that workers’ take-home pay has decreased by LKR 15,000 to 20,000 due to the lack of overtime and other incentives, while targets increased by 50% or more. “Many workers said they were skipping meals, water, and even washroom breaks in order to meet these targets,” Ms. Wickramasingha said, while presenting her findings at Colombo’s Social Scientists’ Association recently. If the plight of permanent workers is difficult, that of manpower or contractual workers is only more precarious, according to Rashmini De Silva, an independent researcher studying gender and labour. “Many of them stand by the entrance to the EPZ [export processing zone] by 4.30 a.m. for a shift that starts at 7 a.m. to make sure that they make it to the quota of workers chosen for work that particular day. The manpower agencies negotiate a daily wage per worker with the factories, and often keep 25-30% of the pay meant for the worker to themselves,” she said, based on her recent research. Further, she found that trade union leaders were under heavy scrutiny by the employers, and abrupt, illegal dismissal of workers engaging in trade union activity was not uncommon.
Despite evidence from multiple research studies, garment manufacturers have repeatedly refuted allegations of rights violations or exploitation. On the other hand, they point to challenges facing the industry owing to the global economic slowdown. “Recent data shows apparel exports declining by 14.95% year-on-year to $1.18 billion in the first quarter of this year... which is the lowest since the first quarter of 2013. The industry projects it could be five to six more months before it sees a recovery in global demand,” observed Yohan Lawrence, secretary general of the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), in an interview to the State-run Sunday Observer last month.
The Forum, made up of Sri Lanka’s top garment manufacturers, has also been making a fervent case for the EU to renew Sri Lanka’s ongoing Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) plus status — a trade incentive offered to vulnerable developing countries — to help the industry recover from the crisis.
Workers and their unions, however, do not see the GSP+ status in isolation, even if it might help secure jobs in the sector. “We want the GSP+ status, but we also want human rights and labour rights to be respected and protected in Sri Lanka. We want our environment to be safeguarded,” Ms. Dandeniya said. The EU regularly monitors if GSP+ beneficiary countries implement the international conventions, including on human rights, labour rights and climate protection, and Sri Lanka is due for review end of this year.
Unions are already voicing concern over likely labour law reforms that authorities are mulling. Last week, the Ranil Wickremesinghe government’s decision to recast pension funds, including EPF, brought more bad news for workers, including in the apparel industry. In a letter to the Central Bank Governor last week, Anton Marcus, joint secretary of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union, slammed the government for taking a decision that would impact millions of workers, without any consultation.
Meanwhile, the average worker is hardly preoccupied with Sri Lanka securing trade benefits in the EU, or her own rights when everyday survival has become a battle. “I don’t know what to say about my future. I am struggling to find my dream again, because I must first find my next meal,” the worker from Jaffna said.
