By the year 1998, the country had 280,000 workers employed in 890 export factories. Eighty percent of them are single women aged between 16 and 29 years. Rights groups say that women workers are preferred because they are seen as a more flexible, easy to manipulate and less likely to demand their rights. It is common for 10 to 12 women workers to live in a single, small room. About 30 women share one toilet.
Water is scarce and transport at night is a problem.
The women often complain of sexual harassment. ''In some factories, once a female worker gets married, she is deprived of promotions and subtly discouraged from continuing work,'' says Padmini Weerasuriya of the Women's Centre, a group working with free trade zone employees. The right to organise and bargain is severely restricted even though this right is recognised in the Constitution. Till last year, workers in the export zones were forbidden from forming unions. It was only last year that the Free Trade Zone Workers' Union was formed following an amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act. Employers are also accused of using the country's emergency regulations to repress workers.