COLOMBO: It took a two-day hunger strike for 50 workers at a state-owned graphite mine to secure a risk allowance increase from 16 Sri Lankan rupees (11 cents) per month to 300 rupees ($2.06) per month. They agreed that they would receive the allowance if they met a target of producing 70 metric tons per month.
The next month, the workers exceeded their monthly target by producing 74 metric tons (81.57 short tons) of graphite, says Sunanda Fernando, secretary of the Free Employees Union at the mine. The increased risk allowance was added to each workers’ July pay.
Still, it’s a pittance compared to what the miners at the Kahatagaha mine could be earning if Sri Lanka’s graphite industry had more sophisticated technology and operated at a higher capacity. “We have heard that miners in other countries earn hundreds of thousands of rupees,” says Sunil Ekanayake, a 64-year-old assistant leader in the mine’s drilling section who has worked there since 1988. “But the Sri Lankan graphite doesn’t draw a high price and, as a result, we receive a low salary.”
