The Labor Behind Tea
WHO
In the Indian tea industry, men are in charge of non-leaf-plucking jobs, while women are in charge of harvesting the tea, earning about half the hourly wage men earn. These low wages force women to bring in children to help them meet the productivity quota, leading to the reappearance of child labor in tea estates. The school dropout rates for children from tea families are high, with the rate being highest between 11-17 year old children. Upon reaching this range of ages, children are considered "employable," whether as domestic workers, construction workers, or in unregulated factories and stores. |
WAGES & CONDITIONS
Most profit in the tea industry goes to multinational corporations buying and packing tea from producers. Typically, 53% of the profit goes to retailers, 33% to blenders, 7% to factories, 6% to traders, 1% to brokers, and less than 1% goes to the tea pickers. Often times, while tea processing factory workers are paid 1/2 of the living wage, tea pickers are paid even less. This low wage has stayed the same while living costs have risen, leading to tea pickers not having enough money to buy food for themselves and their families, and can only afford one meal per day. As a result, around 60% of children living on Indian tea plantations are underweight.
In Kenya, tea pickers are employed daily so they can be easily laid off when they are no longer needed, resulting in tea pickers having to look for new jobs everyday. Because they are "casual" workers, tea pickers receive no benefits, such as maternity leave, paternity leave, paid annual holiday, medical facilities and food rations, from their job. In addition to no benefits, tea pickers also suffer from poor working conditions. To harvest tea, they are standing or walking around all day carrying heavy baskets, often on uneven terrain and under harsh weather conditions. They are exposed to pesticides and insecticides, and injuries as well as respiratory and water-borne diseases are common. Kenyan tea pickers also work long hours for 6 days per week, which sometimes amounts to 74 hours per week due to mandatory overtime work.
Most profit in the tea industry goes to multinational corporations buying and packing tea from producers. Typically, 53% of the profit goes to retailers, 33% to blenders, 7% to factories, 6% to traders, 1% to brokers, and less than 1% goes to the tea pickers. Often times, while tea processing factory workers are paid 1/2 of the living wage, tea pickers are paid even less. This low wage has stayed the same while living costs have risen, leading to tea pickers not having enough money to buy food for themselves and their families, and can only afford one meal per day. As a result, around 60% of children living on Indian tea plantations are underweight.
In Kenya, tea pickers are employed daily so they can be easily laid off when they are no longer needed, resulting in tea pickers having to look for new jobs everyday. Because they are "casual" workers, tea pickers receive no benefits, such as maternity leave, paternity leave, paid annual holiday, medical facilities and food rations, from their job. In addition to no benefits, tea pickers also suffer from poor working conditions. To harvest tea, they are standing or walking around all day carrying heavy baskets, often on uneven terrain and under harsh weather conditions. They are exposed to pesticides and insecticides, and injuries as well as respiratory and water-borne diseases are common. Kenyan tea pickers also work long hours for 6 days per week, which sometimes amounts to 74 hours per week due to mandatory overtime work.
LINK TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING
On some tea plantations, tea pickers are paid such low wages they cannot afford to keep their daughters. In India, thousands of girls are taken from tea plantations by traffickers, promising the girls higher wages and a better life, to be sold as domestic servants or slaves. Trafficked girls work long hours and are not paid the wages they were promised, or just not paid at all. Also, they are sold or handed off to different owners/"employers," and often abused and/or raped. Indian government statistics show that 126,321 trafficked children were recovered from domestic servitude in 2011-12, a yearly increase of almost 27%. Also, according to India's National Crime Record Bureau, children go missing every eight minutes, of which more than a third are never found. |