Case Study on Principle #5 - Labor Principles

Effective abolition of Child Labour

Name of Company: Sotik Tea Company Limited

Background & situational context
Sotik Tea Company Limited, founded in 1945, is situated in the highlands of Sotik and is close to 400 Kms. from Nairobi, in Kenya. The company manages the Sotik Highlands Tea Estates, where its Tea plantation occupies 1,800 ha and another 850 ha is fuel wood plantation. Close to 96% of tea is exported to Europe and the Middle East and thus leaving only 4% for local market.
There are 4,500 employees. Out of this number, 2, 078 are housed in company houses while the rest of the workforce commute from their homes at their own will. An estimated population of 6,729 is said to be living in company housing units. This brings a ration of 3.4 people per unit where children account for 45% of the total inhabitants. The company encourages family employment as strategy to fight HIV/AIDS and elimination of child labour. The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) represent the workers.
According to the Economic Survey for the year 2002, Kenya�s economy has remained in recession over the last five years. After posting a positive growth of 1.2% in 2001, from 0.2% in 2000, the economy grew by 1.1% in 2002. Inflation rate has been on the decline from 6.2 % in 2000, 5.8 % in 2001 to 2.0 % in 2002. Tight fiscal and prudent monetary policies, stable exchange rates, low demand for imports, low food prices and stable world petroleum prices were among the factors that contributed to low inflation.

Problem
Child labour has emerged as one of the most intolerable forms of child exploitation and abuse in some parts of the world. In Kenya, the history of child labour dates back to pre-independence days when Africans in the periphery of white settlements sent their children to work in the farms and homes of settlers as a source of income. To-date, information available indicates that child labour is widespread and the escalating number of children subjected to it in rural and urban areas is a threat to the social and economic fabric of the economy.

According to a Child Labour Module Survey conducted between December 1998 and January 1999, there were 1.9 million working children aged 5-17 years in Kenya. Out of these, 984,000 were boys and 910,000 girls. The Employment Act CAP 226, Part IV on Employment of Women and Juveniles discourages the employment of children.

In 1995, the Sotik Tea Company was under obligation to set employment criteria as part of the requirements from the shareholders and overseas buyers. The buyers required that no child labour be used in picking tea or any forms of work within the estate. The requirement was part of the campaign to ensure that multinational companies participated in efforts to eliminate child labour as part of their corporate citizenry. At the time, the company was explained that �any product that will be deemed to have been manufactured or produced with the services of children shall face a boycott in the international markets.�

Actions taken
After becoming aware of the importance of eliminating child labour, the company decided to take a more proactive approach to combat child labour, instead of waiting for it to become a serious problem. As a first step, the company appointed one of its senior managers to co-ordinate campaigns against child labour within the company. The key tasks of this coordinator are to;
        * Liase with the Federation of Kenya Employers� ILO/IPEC Programme Manager on
          implementation of activities at enterprise level,
        * Hold frequent workshops to sensitize workers and the community on negative
          consequences of child labour,
        * Prepare posters and other training materials on the elimination of child labour,
        * Advise management on appropriate strategies towards elimination of child labour and,
        * Seek advice from local people and convene meetings with village elders.

The company is also continuously evaluating auxiliary programmes to combat child labour. These auxiliary programmes include a school bursary fund, a benevolent fund, saving and credit co-operative scheme and a strategic alliances in support of education materials for workers� children. Sotik Tea management is participating in the IPEC Programme (International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour), which is nationally administered in Kenya. In addition, the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) has been implementing a programme that targets employers in the plantation sector, through which guidelines on the elimination of child labour are provided. A workshop organized by the Federation under the IPEC programme on 4th June 1999 in Nakuru provided a roadmap on the programme approach for the management of Sotik Tea.

Results
As a result of all these actions, Sotik Tea is one of the companies in Kenya where child labour no longer exists. Its efforts to find partners for education materials and scholarships, along with a zero tolerance of child labour at the estate have contributed to a significant increase in the enrolment rate at the local school. Sotik Tea has also adopted an open policy towards social audits including surveillance audits on child labour. As a result, the company has fully complied with the Tea Sourcing Partnership (TSP) requirements on juvenile employment clause. This is monitored annually by TSP.

The collaboration between Sotik Tea and FKE has been a success story. All workers and the community are well informed on the ills of child labour. The company is committed to sustaining these campaigns. Future plans include extending the current campaign to cover house helpers, continuing to provide new posters, preparing �role model� audio visual aides, organizing company festival events and soliciting more support from outside stakeholders.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UN Global Compact Resource Package