Quintus Perera

Like maternity leave, a leave for contagious diseases is essential for workers to have time to heal. In the case of females, it is important when they are faced with such debilities as menstruation. Females should be viewed with special laxity in issues such as the use of toilets, many women workers at the free trade zone (FTZ) say.

Justice prevails even in the wayside boutiques that employ a few females, but not in the female "slave camps" of the Katunayake FTZ. In the FTZ female workers attend to their duties by standing for long hours and not having the privilege to use the toilet at their convenience. In some of these factories, if a worker has a call of nature, she has to obtain a "choo card" (urinating card), and the supervisors mark in the register the number of times each girl has visited the toilet. In some factories, the girls sign a register to visit the toilet, and the new recruits are not allowed to use the toilet for several weeks. In some factories, women workers visit toilet once during a fixed duration of time.

The girls who have been working for a period of time in the FTZ said that this obnoxious, inhuman practice had been in operation for a long time in some factories, and in some, since the inception of the FTZ.

In 1992, a newcomer protested this inhuman act which caused her dismissal from her job after serving for a period of six months, during their strike in December. The cause was after one week of her joining the factory. One day she felt the call of nature and asked for the "choo card." These cards were in the possession of the seniors, and one of them retorted: "This woman, appointed two weeks ago, has the ‘cheek’ to request for the card. Cannot you suppress the urgency? Do you know that we requested for the ‘choo card’ after three months in service? There’s no card."

"Get out" and "no" was no answer to this fresher who was determined to break through this dirty practice by repeatedly requesting the card for three consecutive days. Finally, she said, "If you are not giving me the card, I will urinate right here," and she sat down. The girl issuing the card got agitated and adhered to her request.

When the girls in the FTZ defy the rules, they undergo harsh retaliation by being dismissed or expelled from their jobs. They just cannot afford to lose their jobs, as they are breadwinners of their families living in poverty in distant remote areas.

The girls regard that the inhumane attitude is meted out to them. One girl said that the type of attitude in the FTZ was not found even in the wayside boutiques. Another girl said that the management thought that these girls would stay in the toilet for a long time, but in fact nobody would tolerate the odour in the toilet.

She asked, after a drink of water, what would be the bosses and others do? Would they be using their own washrooms? Selfish employers are only concerned in achieving the quality targets, with less consideration given to the hardworking girls in a "do" or "die" attitude.

Due to these debacles and the threat to their jobs, most of the girls do not drink water during working hours. According to medical sources, by not drinking water to prevent urinating is unhealthy, which would prompt kidney malfunction and other disorders in the body.

As the State president a woman herself, the Board of Investment and the government are their "guardian angels," and the female workers raised a question: while the affluent abuses the workers in this most inhuman manner, what are the human rights and women’s rights organisations doing? Are most of them confined to our protests and campaigning in five star hotels?

This is a good question raised by the workers. The only organisation trying to protest, Kalape Api (We in the Zone) trade union, has written to some of these factory owners clarifying the issue and requesting them to do away this practice. Unfortunately no one has replied the letters. Incidentally, organised labour is a taboo in the FTZ.

(Source: The Weekend Express, 29-30 August 1998.)