| Project Detail |
In the framework of the “Dutch Banking Sector Agreement” project partners have worked together in the working group palm oil value chain, to analyse severe human rights impacts in this sector. The parties in the working group prioritized the most severe issues based on the United Nations Guideline Principles’ focus on severity of impact. Following the working groups’ analysis of the palm oil industry; “Fair wages and Income” and “Labour Rights” were among those that were prioritized, affecting a large number of people working in the upstream part of the value chain. Figures, studies and interviews revealed that these issues are widespread and severe. For Indonesian workers in the palm oil sector violations of labour rights is a widespread problem. Issues that are noted are health and safety problems, low wages, lack of contracts and high targets. In addition, studies show a lack of freedom of association: workers cannot easily join a trade union to protect their rights or union members fear dismissal. Palm oil buyers and investors who want to avoid these labour rights violations, and buy or invest in sustainable palm oil, rely on certification such as RSPO’s Principles and Criteria (Roundtable for Responsible Palm Oil). However, significant labour non-compliances still can occur unnoticed in RSPO certified plantations. Even for RSPO certified plantations, there is a lack of transparency on the labour rights violations, there are trade union rights abuses, and few possibilities for trade unions to have an ongoing social dialogue and negotiate collective bargaining agreements, beyond the moment of auditing. Reliance on audit data only therefore may not provide investors with sufficient security. The proposed project is a multistakeholder project designed by the working group Palm Oil Value Chain to address the most severe issues “Fair Wages and Income” and “Labour Rights”. The partners believe that transparency on the labour rights at palm oil plantations is a first step to achieve better working conditions for workers, support social dialogue and promote freedom of association, and direct the investment towards transformational change. Therefore, the project aims to collect and map collective bargaining agreements (CBA) with local stakeholders, in order to set up a database on CBAs, which will not only be analysed but also receive a rating. This rating will serve as an indicator of the quality of a CBA, the level of social dialogue and the presence of a bipartite structure. Besides, to verify that the CBA’s are complied with in practise, the CBA database will be complemented by decent work checks at companies on compliance with the labour law. This can help traders and investors benchmark plantations and unions in their negotiations. The end goal of the total project is a s database of collective bargaining agreements providing valuable data for different parties to address and mitigate labour rights risks. |
