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2 November, 2009
Contract and Agency Workers of the Lipton tea factory in Khanewal, Pakistan, finally saw their long struggle for employment rights end recently. The factory, directly owned by the multinational corporation Unilever, previously employed only 22 regular workers, with many hundreds of staff employed on precarious contracts and denied their right to full and direct employment.
That changed, thanks to a campaign by the International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF), which now has won work rights for the CAL workers at Lipton in this Pakistan factory. The past seven months of the campaign focused on negotiations carried out under the auspices of the UK’s National Contact Point, responsible for application of the OECD’s Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, which require companies to ensure that all its subsidiaries conform to global labour standards, including ILO Conventions 87 and 98. The IUF made a submission to the OECD through the UK in March 2009.
The Lipton/Brooke Bond tea factory in Khanewal had become a symbol of the growing global trend of labour casualisation. The vast majority of employees at the plant were on “no work, no pay” contracts through one of six labour-hire agencies. They were disallowed the right to organise or bargain collectively.
They were blocked from joining the Unilever workers’ union, or from bargaining with Unilever, with the Dutch-UK multinational claiming it was not their direct employer. The six labour agencies operated out of the factory and do not supply workers to any other plant.
Under the terms of the settlement, 200 direct and permanent jobs have been created for workers, retroactive to 15 October. Workers that are most senior are given priority for the full-time jobs, as well as the members of the Khanewal Workers’ Action Committee, which stands as a tribute to those daring to stand up for their rights. This employment process will be jointly implemented and supervised by both IUF and Unilever.
Khanewal Workers
The permanent workers received a monthly base wage of PKR 18,000 (US$226), while the daily wage for the contract labourers was PKR 232, less than US$3 a day. Agency workers received no extra pay for overtime and holiday work, no annual or medical benefits, and the majority have been on the job for more than ten years – some for as long as 30 years.
The IUF campaign has forced Unilever to acknowledge the failure of contract labour agencies in fulfilling their statutory obligations on social security, retirement payments, as well as basic mandatory financial obligations to workers. The settlement therefore includes lump-sum payments to workers and guarantees from Unilever to settle payments to the state, in arrears.
The IUF has passed on a message of warm thanks from the Khanewal workers' Action Committee to all those around the world who supported their struggle with demonstrations, messages to the company, meetings, pickets, and political action. Many ICEM supporters and affiliates sent support messages through the IUF site. The ICEM congratulates the IUF for running a hard and arduous, yet successful campaign to gain the legitimate rights of contract workers.