Lipton Tea exploits laborers in third world countries

Lipton tea exploits laborers from third world countries.

In the old days, toothpaste was almost always synonymous to Colgate, photography to Kodak and soft drinks to Coke. Let us add to that list tea, which is almost always attached to the world’s biggest tea brand, Unilever’s Lipton.

To many, Lipton is tea, and tea is Lipton, never mind if there are numerous other less popular brands of the world’s favorite brew.

That being the case, one would expect that growing tea leaves is good business, benefitting millions of plantation workers worldwide, especially in vast tea growing estates in Asia and Africa.

Sadly, such appears to be a fantasy, as the old colonial picture of high handed landlords imposing their will and taking advantage of impoverished plantation workers who receive a pittance for back-breaking work is still the norm in many tea estates.

Tea plantation and factory workers who supply the demands of Lipton in Kenya, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, have, for years, been complaining of poor working conditions, low monthly wages, discrimination and harassment even as Unilever cultivates what others describe as a “growing regime of disposable jobs.”

“Your small cup of tea makes a big difference” says the Lipton tea brand tagline, but what does this really mean?

Viewing it from a good corporate citizenship standpoint, we might see it as a way of helping uplift the lives of tea plantation workers by patronizing their products which would pay them well and provide for the needs of their families.

But developments in the tea plantations in the four aforementioned countries makes us believe that your small cup will make a big difference in further enriching the lords of Lipton and Unilever while sustaining the vicious cycle of abuse endured by the poor workers.

In India’s Nilgiri Hills tea plantations, Lipton, through its suppliers who own the tea estates, committed to pay each worker 115 rupees a month and lessen its environmental impact by decreasing the amount of pesticides used to protect water sources.

Sure enough, Unilever and its suppliers abided by the environmental aspect of their commitment to the Indian people, but failed to honor the monthly remuneration for the workers by bending rules.

Rather than paying them 115 rupees, only 86 was paid each worker, with the remaining 29 rupees paid in the form of daily allowances, which was disallowed by both the Tamil Nadu government and the Indian High Court.

Unilever and its cohorts prop themselves up as the good guys by making it appear that they are giving the workers a 29 rupee allowance when the agreement was that allowances to be extended to the workers must be separate from the 115 rupee monthly pay.

Talk about scheming!

Worse, it was discovered that the employers do not contribute to the pension fund for workers, though they are legally obliged to do so.

Heck, Unilever even had the temerity to claim in its website that its eight tea plantations in India have passed environmental standards and even provided for free housing, healthcare, child care and education for workers in the tea estates.

Big deal.

What they conveniently or curiously missed out was that such an arrangement is part of their legally mandated obligation, that the same facilities are common in all tea plantations of other companies and its operations are partly subsidized by the government of India.

And the issue on the under compensation of workers? Their silence is indeed, deafening.

It’s even worse in Pakistan, where Lipton tea factories have been shut down in two locations and replaced by an obscure, unmarked, unnamed warehouse in Karachi from where Lipton tea is processed, packaged and sent around the world to be savored by you and may anytime of the day.

What’s bothering about this set up is that because the factory is not officially attached to Lipton, its hundreds of workers are not connected to Lipton but are merely under contract to work in the factory without a name and operated by an unknown entity.

This gives rise to more jobs lacking in security of tenure and pay, elimination of permanent jobs in Lipton-identified facilities and open to harassment and other forms of abuses – all for the sake of producing the world’s favorite brew.

In Kenya, the same horror stories prevail. A report by the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, through interviews of plantation workers, bared numerous abuses and labor law violations committed by Unilever-controlled plantations.

Other than gender and tribal discrimination, many workers are forced to do overtime work, but hardly get paid. Those who refuse ran the risk of getting fired or harassed further.

Likewise, personal protective equipment like masks against pesticides, boots and gloves are hardly made available to them, except when inspection teams are scheduled to visit are such equipment showed off – but only during the inspections.

As we continue enjoying cups of tea each day, there may me a bigger storm brewing in tea plantations, and unless Unilever adequately addresses the serious allegations and concerns of plantation workers, what should be a mere tempest in a teapot could get out of hand, as more of the tea growers grow more desperate with the way they are being treated.

Unilever gives us, consumers the high quality tea we deserve, but shouldn’t it also extend the proper treatment richly deserved by thousands of workers who toil in their tea plantations?

Sipping cups of quality tea grown by exploited, harassed and deceived poor people will surely leave a bad, stinging taste in the mouth.

A fairer and more humane treatment of tea plantation workers is what could really make your small cup of team make a big difference – on a positive note.