IUF
Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers World-Wide
Adding Vitality to Lies: Unilever Responds to the IUF on Lipton Pakistan
Posted to the IUF website 02-Mar-2009Share this article.
"There's a big idea driving all our product development. We call it 'vitality' - a word that sums up the difference we aim to make to people's lives
www.unilever.com."
In response to the thousands of protest messages which have been sent to Unilever through the IUF website, Unilever has sent out a crudely improvised reply stating that "In line with industry practice in Pakistan, we have for some time employed third party service providers for certain operations at the Khanewal tea factory." Further, that "We understand that some employees have filed cases against the service providers asking for permanency of employment and are now seeking to involve Unilever Pakistan in this process. These cases are currently pending in various judicial forums." Finally, that "Our management in Pakistan is seeking to involve all stakeholders to discuss and resolve this issue."
These statements are, to put it mildly, deliberately misleading:
- Unilever does not use third party service providers for "some" of the operations at the factory which produces one of its leading global brands. There are 22 workers directly employed by Unilever - the other 723 are casuals. No less than 97% of the workers are not formally employed by Unilever, though they produce a branded Unilever product in a Unilever factory. That 3% of the Khanewal workforce is of course 3% more than the percentage of directly employed workers at the factory producing Lipton/Brooke Bond factory in Karachi - where the workforce is 100% outsourced.
- It is simply false to state that "some employees have filed cases against the service providers asking for permanency of employment." A union of workers has been formed at the factory to challenge, and to change, the system of abusive, discriminatory hiring through agencies. The nearly one hundred cases filed to date calling for direct employment status for the tea workers have been filed against Unilever, not the service agencies. Moreover, the court in which these cases are pending has accepted these submissions as submissions against Unilever. And Unilever knows this.
- "Our management in Pakistan is seeking to involve all stakeholders to discuss and resolve this issue"?After the union was formed and began assisting workers in filing petitions with the Labour Court, workers holding a peaceful protest action on November 15 were beaten by labour hire agency contractors. On November 17, management announced that all workers who filed petitions would not be allowed to work and locked the factory gates. Workers on the evening shift were locked inside without food or potable water until 5:00 the next morning when one of the workers collapsed and was rushed to hospital. On November 18, management started planning to reduce production as a way of punishing the contract workers under the no work - no pay system. Now management is trying to create a rival group of casual workers drawn from relatives of the labour contractors in order to foment violence and conflict - "to discuss and resolve the issue"?
Unilever Pakistan, like global corporate Unilever, consistently portrays itself as an industry leader. Its dominant market share in key products means that it is a major shaper of the environment in which "industry practices" are determined. Unilever can, of course, reverse the trend towards 100% disposable jobs by entering into negotiations with the organizations representing its casual tea workers.