Unilever steps up efforts to address sexual harassment at its Kenyan tea plantations

Unilever introduces a new action plan following repeated reports on sexual harassment on its tea plantation in Kenya.

As early as 2008, SOMO published on precarious work on this particular tea estate owned by Unilever. In 2011 new research by SOMO and its Kenyan partner Kenyan Human Rights Commission revealed that problematic working conditions continued to affect workers at this estate and that many problems constituted violations of labour rights specified by the ILO, Rainforest Alliance and Unilever’s own code of business principles. In response to this publication Unilever introduced a range of measures to improve the safety of female workers.

In August 2013 however, an ARTE documentary showed that despite these measures, sexual harassment was still taking place at Kericho. Unilever’s new announcement follows the broadcasting of this documentary, which was supported by SOMO.