The James Finlay and Unilever tea firms have the story by the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) to stop utilizing independent contractors to seek labour.


Instead, the union requests that the tea companies offer direct employment to all contracted workers.

KPAWU released the statement, a member of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), days after a shocking BBC exposé revealed an assault in Kericho tea fields.

Francis Atwoli, the secretary general of COTU and a similar position with KPAWU, stated on Wednesday that the BBC's disclosures had highlighted the risks associated with outsourcing labour given that the two businesses chose to do so.

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The rights and well-being of employees are impacted by outsourcing their work because they are at the discretion of contracted companies rather than the parent company, according to Atwoli.

In addition, KPAWU urged that James Finlay and Unilever stop using strategies to dissuade workers from joining unions to provide them with more vigorous representation and advocacy.

Atwoli added that both businesses must make sure that all of their employees are allowed to exercise their constitutional rights under Article 41, which guarantees fair pay, appropriate working conditions, the freedom to join a union, and the right to bargain collective bargaining agreements (CBA)

He continued by requesting that both businesses unionize their staff and pay damages and compensation to the affected workers, going beyond apologies and crisis communications.

Make plantation workers unionized.

The COTU SG requested that the government ratify ILO Convention 190 on the immediate abolition of violence and harassment in the workplace.

PHOTO | COURTESY Finlay Tea plantation in Kericho

To prevent and combat violence and harassment at work, he stated, "governments that ratify C190 will be compelled to put in place the requisite laws and policy measures."

After Kericho Governor Eric Mutai instructed county health facilities to provide free private counselling services to victims of assault in tea estates, he remarked a short time afterwards.

In a joint press conference with Kericho County Assembly members on Wednesday, Governor Mutai denounced women forcefully put into performing immoral acts in exchange for employment, as revealed by the BBC.

The Governor further demanded that the criminals mentioned earlier be detained immediately.

"We demand a thorough response to rectify historical and present-day injustices. As the assembly suspends house business today to determine the best course of action in this critical problem, I am directing the health facilities to provide victims with free private counseling," Governor Mutai said.