IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate in Sri Lanka has directed ATG Ceylon to stop union busting at its factories. Recently, workers at ATG belonging to the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ&GSEU) picketed the British Embassy over labour abuse at the company.

Labour violations have continued at ATG after the union was forced to hold a vote in February 2017 to represent workers, despite already having a mandate to do so. The company has refused to discuss worker issues brought up by the union. Neither has it allowed the union to meet in the factory, even though it is the recognised bargaining agent. Furthermore, 59 workers who celebrated Labour Day on 1 May, after the government decided to postpone the 1 May holiday to 7 May, were put on compulsory leave and their photos were displayed in a notice that claimed they engaged in unlawful strike action.

In another act of victimisation during the company’s 25-year anniversary celebrations in 2017, the company refused to give eight union activists a medal for their five or more years of service, as other workers had received. IFTZ&GSEU has received considerable support from the German ambassador in Sri Lanka, who wrote to the Minister of Labour on 20 June 2018 expressing concerns of the violations of labour rights at the company.