Lanka Tiles employees back at work after stoppage

Four hundred and fifty workers of Lanka Tiles who stopped work at the company factory in Jalatara on 1 September are back at work following an agreement with the management. Four hundred and fifty of the company’s 580 strong work force who stopped work in violation of a collective agreement in place have now agreed to abide by management directed work practices.

The reason for the work stoppage was that workers had been leaving the factory premises during the lunch break and two tea breaks and returning late causing the management to stop workers leaving the premises during these breaks. It has been agreed to permit 30 members of the workforce to leave the premises during the lunch break and not to permit anyone one leaving the premises during the two tea breaks. The strike lasted one and a half days, Mahendra Jayasekera, Managing Director Lanka Tiles told the Daily FT.

The company’s collective agreement has been in effect since June 2010 and is effective for three years. Incorporated in 1984, Lanka Tiles is a subsidiary of Lanka Walltiles whose core business is in glazed ceramic floor tiles. It also manufactures walltiles, sanytaryware, tableware, electro porcelain and mines and processes raw materials.