SL diplomats settle Bahrain strike

A workforce of 850 Sri Lankan expatriates employed in an apparel industry in Bahrain who were out on strike were given a reprieve from losing their jobs by the intervention of two senior officials of the Sri Lanka missions in Kuwait and Bahrain. They would have lost their jobs as no solution was found, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said yesterday.

The strike started when the Sri Lankan Manager of the apparel factory, Ambathur Garments, had given its Sri Lankan employees impossible targets to achieve after he was appointed manager of the factory.

They had appealed to the manager that they could not achieve the targets set by him but he had refused to listen to their appeals forcing them to resort to strike, a SLBFE press release said.

On directions of the External Affairs Ministry Sri Lankan diplomats from Bahrain and Kuwait, Kalyani Herath and P.B. Hikgoda had intervened with the management of the factory and pointed out that the manager had set impossible targets that workers could not achieve, the release said.

After the intervention of the Sri Lankan diplomats the management of the factory had agreed to recall the former General Manager of the factory an Indian national who had gone on transfer to another factory. The Indian General Manager had looked into the problems of the Sri Lankan workers ending the strike.

Sri Lankan diplomats also requested that the Sri Lankan employees should not be victimized and the management had agreed to that request the SLBFE release stated.