NEXT escalates union activity in Sri Lanka following closure of own factory

• FTZ&GSEU trade union reports NEXT further violated Sri Lanka labour laws by withdrawing salary payments to 16 workers contesting the company’s closure of its own production facility in Katunayake on 19th May this year.
• Despite signing a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the FTZ & GSEU trade union, the billions-making UK retail giant closed the factory without any consultation with the union. Now, they are again effectively unlawfully terminating the employment of the 16 workers  – who are  the union members challenging NEXT’s actions at a Sri Lankan labour department hearing.
• The FTZ & GSEU trade union that represents the workers and international allies in the Clean Clothes Campaign call on NEXT to immediately restore wage payments to the 16 workers and engage with the trade union on factory closure.

Following its shocking action on the 19th May to terminate the jobs of 1,416 of its workers without consultation – and effectively close its only unionised factory  – NEXT continues to violate workers’ rights.

The 1,416 workers at the Katunayake factory were misled by NEXT management into signing voluntary resignation letters in order to obtain compensation. 16 workers refused to resign and filed a complaint for unlawful termination of employment against NEXT with the Sri Lanka Labour Commissioner. As those workers had not resigned nor was their employment judged lawfully terminated NEXT is required to continue to pay their wages until the inquiry process is over and the Commissioner’s Order. NEXT did pay basic wages  – until now. At a hearing with the Commissioner of Labour on Wednesday, 3 September, the corporate giant’s lawyers announced that wage payments for the 16 workers who have not resigned have been stopped as of 20 August. Incredibly, they argued this does not constitute a termination of employment. The Commissioner of Labour concluded there was a prima facie case of unlawful termination of employment for  NEXT to answer. 

This latest violation comes after NEXT broke the terms of its Collective Bargaining Agreement with FTZ & GSEU by not consulting them on plans to reduce its workforce, and recklessly going ahead to notify workers it was closing the factory before it obtained the legal consent of the Labour Commissioner to terminate the employment of its workers – using the ‘voluntary resignations’ as a way around the law.

The 16 workers whose wages have now been stopped will face severe economic hardship and 10 of them are women who are the sole bread-winners of their families. They cannot get another job whilst contractually still employed by NEXT and their role as trade union members prepared to challenge NEXT’s actions means they are effectively blacklisted from jobs in the area.

Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of the FTZ&GSEU union said:

“In the year they announced record-breaking profits of 1 billion pounds, NEXT continued to show little regard for the workers who helped them achieve these remarkable results. Our members in the Katunayake site have lost their jobs and livelihoods, but they’ve also lost any trust in NEXT over their union busting tactics. For workers to be refused payment while their complaint is ongoing amounts to unlawful termination of employment. NEXT may be a corporate giant, but we will not be silenced. We continue to fight for justice for our members and for the company to stand by its commitments to genuine workers rights.”