Palm Oil Industry Tied to Forced and Child Labor in Indonesia Numerous Consumer Products Linked to Slave-Like Conditions Producers of palm oil, the most popular vegetable oil in the world which is found in thousands of consumer and industrial products, rely in part on Indonesian contractors using forced labor and underage workers, according to a nine-month investigation by the nonprofit Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. The report, entitled “Asia’s Bitter Harvest: The hidden human toll of the palm oil boom” describes the project and its findings, which are based on more than 75 interviews and on-the ground reporting at 12 palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil in the world. The report states that widespread abuses of basic human rights exists in Indonesia’s palm oil production, including forced and child labor. Palm oil and its derivatives are found in products ranging from donuts and soap to lipstick, toothpaste, and biodiesel. Global palm oil use has quintupled since 1990 and is now a $44 billion industry. Although producers have drawn scrutiny from environmental activists, who decry the destruction of the rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia to support palm oil expansion, the human costs of the palm oil boom have been largely overlooked. The findings report that thousands of child laborers and worker who face dangerous and abusive working conditions exist among the estimated 3.7 million workers in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. Schuster Institute investigative team members found child laborers, some as young as nine-years old, at each plantation they visited. Debt bondage is common, and traffickers prey on victims with few, if any, sanctions from business or government officials. Former workers complained of being defrauded, abused and held captive by CV Sinar Kalimantan, a labor contractor for a top palm oil producing company, Malaysia-based Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK). KLK CEO Tan Dato’ Seri Lee Ol Hain said the company canceled the contract of CV Sinar Kalimantan and blacklisted the contractor. Claims of workers and managers conflict this statement suggesting that it appears that KLK may still be involved with some of the same contractors formerly at CV Sinar Kalimantan. “Industry enforcement of environmental and human rights standards remains weak”, reports labor activists. Shipping records confirm at least 38 corporations have purchased KLK’s palm oil and palm oil derivatives since 2009, including Archer Daniels Midland, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble (P&G), which uses palm oil derivatives in Crest toothpaste, Gillette shave prep, and Olay skin cream. Cargill, America’s largest privately held company, received at least 31 KLK shipments within the last three years, and has sold palm oil and derivatives to Nestlé, General Mills, Kraft Foods, and the Kellogg Company. When asked for comments, California Oils, Kellogg, Kraft, General Mills, P&G, and Unilever responded that their supplier codes of conduct prohibit the kind of labor abuses the Schuster Institute investigation uncovered. Nestlé and Archer Daniels Midland pledged to investigate the allegations, while a Cargill spokesperson said that “at this time, KLK is not in violation of any labor laws where they operate nor are we aware of any investigation of KLK’s labor practices.”
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 20:33:50 +0000
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