During the past week, on Sunday and Wednesday, two workers employed at different factories in Sri Lanka lost their lives at work.

The first death occurred when a machine exploded at a latex rubber processing factory located on the Kiriporuwa Estate at Yatiyanthota, 75 kilometres east of Colombo. The second death was at the Maussakelle Tea Factory in Maskeliya, in the central hill country, where a worker’s head was caught in a tea-rolling machine.

Those who lost their lives were Rajinikantha, a 25-year-old unmarried young man at the rubber products factory, and Krishnan Vijayakumar, a 49-year-old widower with four children employed at the tea factory.

The death at the Kiriporuwa Estate

The rubber products factory where Rajinikantha’s death occurred belongs to Dipped Products Company, a subsidiary of the Hayleys Group of Companies. The group is chaired by prominent Sri Lankan billionaire businessmen Dhammika Perera and Mohan Pandithage.

Workers who witnessed the incident told World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) reporters that Rajinikantha sustained severe injuries to his chest and face when parts of the rubber-rolling machine he was operating exploded and struck him. One of his arms was severed.

Two other workers, Shriskandarajah (47) and Pushpanagam, injured in the same accident, have been admitted to the nearby Karawanella Hospital.

According to the company, the latex production is carried out using centrifugal machines. Experts have pointed out that the explosion of such a machine could have occurred due to the lack of proper safety measures and maintenance.

In particular, safety features such as over-speed trip systems, vibration and temperature sensors, automatic shutdown interlocks and explosion-proof casings are essential. However, workers said the machine was more than three decades old and appeared to lack most of these safety provisions.

Although modern machinery equipped with advanced safety systems can be used to protect workers’ lives, it is evident that—like other capitalists who place their profits above workers’ lives—the owners of this company continued to operate dangerous, outdated machines instead of installing new equipment with such safety mechanisms.

Male workers take up work in the factory because it allows them to earn slightly more than the 1,350 rupees ($US4.50) they make daily from rubber tapping on the Kiriporuwa Estate, where the factory is located. However, they receive work at the factory only for a few days each month.

To meet the production targets, workers have to work from around 7 am until 10 pm.

One worker said: “If you complete the target of 10 rounds, you can earn about four times the normal wage. But since the machines heat up, it’s hard to work while wearing safety gear. If we do, we can’t meet the target. So we’re compelled to work without safety gear.”

Neighbours, expressing sorrow, said Rajinikantha’s siblings are married and living separately, so that with his death, his parents—who depended on his income—have been left helpless.

According to family members, no assistance or compensation has yet been received from the Dipped Products Company. 

One injured worker said: “We don’t know whether we were properly protected by insurance. But the factory says that compensation will be paid.”

The death at Maskeliya

The Maussakelle Tea Factory and estate, where Vijayakumar was killed, belongs to the Maskeliya Plantations Company, controlled by the Richard Peiris Company (ARPICO), another major corporate group in Sri Lanka.

On Vijayakumar’s funeral day on Saturday, his family members and fellow workers spoke to WSWS reporters. The workers, who were shocked and angered by the death of their colleague, said ARPICO must be held fully responsible.

A worker explained: “I work on a machine adjacent to the one Vijayakumar was operating. These machines, which have three legs, are supposed to have three safety guards. If these guards are in place, they prevent hands or other parts of the body from getting caught in the machine. 

“But the machine Vijayakumar was working on had none of the three safety guards. That’s why his jacket got caught in the machine. He got pulled in, and the back of his head hit the machine. If the guards had been there, his life could have been saved.”

Another employee, who was previously assigned to operate the machines in this factory and now works at another institution, said there should be a separate official responsible for ensuring workers’ safety.

“Before a worker begins work, the machine should be inspected. In fact, the machine hadn’t had guards for many years. Not only that, the worker’s safety gear should be properly checked. That’s why his jacket got caught in the machine. 

“In reality, workers haven’t been given knowledge about such hazardous situations. In any case, the primary cause of the death was the absence of safety guards. The company must be held fully responsible for this death.”

Referring to the recent fire at the nearby Laxapana Tea Factory, he pointed out that there was no fire alarm system there. “Although the Maussakelle factory had water and sand buckets, the workers were not given any training on how to actually put out a fire.”

Another worker said the switches used to start and stop the machine are exposed and give electric shocks. “I told the tea maker (the factory’s responsible official) several times, but no action was taken. Now I have to operate the switch using a wooden stick.”

He said that the rolling of tea leaves at the factory begins at 10 pm, and on days with heavier work, they have to continue until around 1.30 pm the next day. Although workers are entitled to overtime pay for the extra hours, it is limited to one or two hours, and any additional overtime pay is deducted.

“Even though we are exploited that much, the companies say they cannot increase our wages. Whether we suffer, whether we get hurt, or die like Vijayakumar after getting caught in a machine—that doesn’t matter to them. What they want is for us to die so they can make money. This must be stopped.”

In an attempt to pacify the growing anger among the workers, the estate manager has promised Vijayakumar’s children that compensation will be provided for his death. The workers say that such a verbal promise cannot be trusted.

All the capitalist media outlets have reported the death caused by the explosion of the latex machine at the Kiriporuwa Estate factory as an ordinary incident, and the death at the Maussakelle factory as merely resulting from a worker’s jacket getting caught in a machine, demonstrating their disregard for the lives of workers.

Industrial murders

These two deaths would not have occurred if there had been safety mechanisms to protect workers. They amount to industrial murders. These big companies are only interested in extracting profits, regardless of lives.

The trade union bureaucracies work hand-in-glove with companies, and successive governments are responsible for these crimes committed by the employers. One worker stated: “Without the support of the trade union leaders and the government, the companies wouldn’t be able to behave like this. But the union leaders and the government do nothing about it.”

Plantation workers, who make up one of the most oppressed sections of the Sri Lankan working class, are deprived of both a monthly salary and paid leave. 

According to calculations by the Department of Census and Statistics in 2023, a family of four requires a minimum monthly income of 90,000–100,000 rupees to meet basic needs. However, with the cost of living now even higher, the average pay packet of a plantation worker is around 25,000 rupees. They live in 12-by-10-foot barrack-like line rooms, most of them built around 100 years ago and repaired several times.

The number of workers in Sri Lanka who are injured or killed in industrial accidents is rapidly increasing. According to the latest International Labour Organisation statistics, approximately 2,000 non-fatal workplace accidents and 60–80 fatal accidents occur annually in Sri Lanka.

Some recent deaths reported include:

• On August 8, 2025, a 51-year-old prime mover driver was killed in an accident at the Colombo Port International Container Terminal.
• A 35-year-old man from Ratnapura died in an industrial accident in Makola, Sapugaskanda, a Colombo suburb, in late August 2025 after being caught in machinery.

Deaths in workplaces are rising globally, from the so-called industrialised countries to backward countries. For instance, on October 10, an explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems (AES) munitions plant in Bucksnort, Tennessee, in the US resulted in the deaths of 16 workers. On October 14, a fire erupted at a garment factory in the Mirpur area of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, where 16 workers burned to death.

These deaths, caused by cutting safety measures in the pursuit of profit, are not simply “industrial accidents”—they are murders produced by capitalism.

The Socialist Equality Party urges workers to build workers’ action committees in every factory, estate and other workplace which can take action to save their lives as well as fight for their jobs and wages. 

Such committees must halt production under unsafe conditions, demand the full disclosure of all safety data, and bring to justice those responsible for deaths and injuries.

It is essential to establish the international solidarity of the working class in this struggle. The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees is fighting to mobilise workers internationally in the struggle against capitalism and for international socialism.