Trade Unionist demands report on FTZ worker’s killing in May 2011

A leading trade unionist yesterday called on the new government to release without further delay, the report compiled by former High Court Judge Mahanama Tillekeratne who probed the killing of young factory hand, Roshen Chanaka on May 31, 2011, during a labour protest.

“We have already written to the office of President Maithripala Sirisena in this regard, as the earlier administration had apparently kept the report in limbo for the last several years.

The family of the dead factory worker in particular and the public in gener- al, need to know the findings, following the incident that also left some 260 other factory workers injured, including 14 in a critical condition,” Apparel Free Trade Workers’ Union member Anton Marcus told the Sunday Times.

The factory hand was shot dead allegedly by the police who had stormed into the Katunayake Free Trade Zone to break up workers agitating against government moves to replace the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) with a private pension scheme.

Mr Marcus who led the protest at that time, in his submissions to the Mahana- ma Tillekeratne Commission said he had provided material evidence that linked regional politicians in the Gampaha District to the disturbances which fuelled the situation that led to the police charge on the workers inside the FTZ, and the eventual death.

He said that, these same politicians had also promised monetary and other relief to the victim’s parents, but subsequently fell short of these obligations with the passage of time.

The proposed private pension scheme was subsequently withdrawn and the present EPF system allowed to continue.