Gov’t grants 30 Sri-Lankan workers $ 3,000 each

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Council of Ministers has granted 30 Sri-Lankan workers U.S.$3,000 each, along with air tickets to fly back to their country from Baghdad, the government spokesman said on Wednesday. “The Council of Ministers has decided in its 37th session on Wednesday to assign the State Minister for Marches Affairs to settle the problem of the Sri-Lankan workers with the Lebanese Talaat Husamiddin Company, through paying them 3,000 dollars each and air tickets to fly from Baghdad to their home country. The company involved will be sued to regain the amounts paid for the Sri-Lankan workers,” Ali al-Dabbagh said. The Sri-Lankan workers had announced a hunger-strike last month in protest to the Lebanese company’s failure to pay their wages for a long period. The said workers had been carrying out the Company’s works to build housing compounds in a rural area in southern Iraq, but the company had failed to complete the works, forcing the Iraqi government to cancel its contract, followed by strikes by the Sri-Lankan workers, demanding the payment of their wages. SKH (TI)/SR 684