Ansell Lanka agrees to rehire most staff fired during 2013 strike

Ansell Lanka, the local subsidiary of international glove and personal protection manufacturer Ansell Limited, has agreed to rehire most of the staff that had been fired in 2013 for going on strike at its plant in the Biyagama Free Trade Zone.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between Ansell Limited, the global union IndustriALL and the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZGSEU), an IndustriALL statement said.
 “We are happy to have reached this agreement with Ansell and that nearly 300 workers can at last look forward to a brighter future,” IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina said.

Ansell has also committed to offering early retirement packages for more than 40 workers.
FTZGSEU Joint Secretary Anton Marcus hoped that this marks a transition towards a better relationship between Ansell and the employees’ union.
The 281 workers had gone on strike in 2013 in support of 11 colleagues that had been laid off, even though FTZGSEU had lacked sufficient representation to be a recognized collective bargaining representative for the Ansell Lanka factory.
While Ansell’s termination of the striking workers had been upheld by Sri Lanka’s highest court, IndustriALL and the FTZGSEU had engaged in a long but constructive dialogue with Ansell to resolve these issues.
IndustriALL said that Ansell has agreed to uphold the rights of all its employees to freedom of association, to not discriminate against the workers if they are rehired and to assume a positive attitude to the former workers and towards their rehiring.
The MoU concludes an OECD complaint launched by IndustriALL against Ansell in November 2013.
“We see this as the start of a new chapter and constructive industrial relations between IndustriALL, Ansell and our affiliates in Sri Lanka and in other countries where Ansell operates,” Raina said.
Follow up meetings will be held with Ansell over the next 6 months in order to monitor the implementation of the MoU.
IndustriALL Global Union represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors.

Ansell is one of the world’s leading manufacturers in the industrial and medical gloves market, as well as in the personal protection category.  Ansell employs over 10,000 individuals in operations worldwide.