Brandix Caught In Covid-19 Mess

Apparel manufacturer responds to mounting allegations as concerns are raised

- Kamanthi Wickramasinghe

CONCERNS TO BE ADDRESSED IMMEDIATELY

According to Chamila Thushari, Programme Coordinator at Dabindu Collective – a nonprofit organisation advocating to protect and promote rights of female workers in the Free Trade Zone, around 2000-3000 garment workers were unemployed at the onset of the curfew in March. “After the case was detected from the Minuwangoda factory, all workers from this factory and the Katunayake factory were sent home. This is without conducting PCR tests on them and this is a very risky situation. Another issue is that most workers have been deployed from manpower agencies and they work on a rotational basis. Therefore if there are fewer workers in one factory, the agency would send a group of workers to that factory and the same group would go to another factory on the following day and so on. This had been practiced by factories coming under this chain for a while. The workers are supposed to receive their salaries on the 10th of this month but due to the prevailing situation, they will not get their share either.

“Speculation is rife whether the virus spread from the human resources team that visits these factories every day. Another concern is that a husband and wife would work in two different factories, but would live in the same boarding room,” she added.

They are helpless and would work anywhere to earn money. They have to pay boarding fees, utility bills and some even have to send money home. But they are not even being looked after