Police assault protesting Bata workers in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2004, 14:13 GMT]
Twenty Bata workers were injured in Colombo Thursday when Sri Lanka Police assaulted them severely to break up a fifty two day long protest against the international footwear giant for sacking the six hundred strong workforce at its factory in Ratmalana, an industrial area on the southern outskirts of Colombo. Police refused to record their complaint about the assault, workers said. Hundreds of Policemen attacked male and female workers who in front of the Bata factory Thursday.




The entire Bata factory workforce went on strike after the company sacked a trade union leader who had questioned its decision to lay off 146 workers in June this year.

Workers now allege that Bata is using its immense political and financial power to break up their protest with the aid of the Police.

They also allege that Bata has used its influence to prevent news about the protest from appearing in the mainstream media.