Brazil’s Growing Up Right Institute organized a seminar on child labor prevention at the Santa Cruz Country Club in Santa Cruz do Sul on July 7.
Under the theme, “Child labor: care, welcome and protection,” participants discussed the progress made in combatting child labor, along with the work that still needs to be done.
“The Institute was founded with the mission to fight child labor and generate opportunities for adolescents from the rural setting, especially in tobacco growing regions,” said Iro Schunke, president of the Growing Up Right Institute, in a statement. “It is a complex task, but with good partnerships we have achieved great results. We have already become known nationally and internationally for the innovative method of offering opportunities to adolescents from the countryside through the learning law.”
Since 2016, the rural professional learning program has benefited 596 young people in Rio Grande do Sul. As part of the program, tobacco companies associated with the Growing up Right Institute hire young apprentices and pay them a salary proportional to 20 hours a week.
Instead of working, however, the apprentices attend a rural management and entrepreneurship course in the shift opposite to their regular school hours. The classes typically take place in the apprentices’ normal schools or in venues provided by the municipal administrations, which also provide for food and transport logistics thus making it viable for the adolescents to attend the course.
According to a report by the International Labor Organization and by the United Nations Children’s Fund, 160 million children and adolescents, aged 5 to 17, were subjected to child labor in early 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem of child labor around the world, with a sharp increase in poverty, closure of schools and consequent school evasion.
In Brazil, the National Household Sample Survey, demonstrated that 1.77 million children and adolescents works, 53.7 percent of whom are in the 16-17 year age group.
British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands failed to persuade the U.K. high court to throw out a case alleging they are responsible for the exploitation of farm families and child labor in Malawi, The Guardian reported on June 25.
The case was brought following a Guardian investigation in June 2018.
Lawyers at Leigh Day allege the working conditions on Malawi tobacco farms breach the definition of forced labor, unlawful compulsory labor and exploitation under Malawian law. They also say they breach the U.K. Modern Slavery Act, Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the International Labor Organization definition of forced labor. They say the companies have unjustly enriched themselves at the expense of Malawi farming families.
British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands deny the allegations. They argued that the Malawian families could not prove that the tobacco they grew had ended up in the companies’ cigarettes.
In the high court, Justice Martin Spencer said the companies’ application to strike out the case had been “misconceived.” The judge said lawyers for the farmers were not required to offer proof at the beginning of a legal action, only when it came to full trial.
A spokesperson for Imperial said they could not comment further because the litigation was ongoing, “other than to reiterate that we will continue to defend the claim.”
BAT said it had “a longstanding commitment to respect the human rights of our employees, the people we work with and the communities in which we operate. We will continue to vigorously defend the claims, and we are unable to provide further comment while this case continues.”
Alliance One International and other reputable leaf merchants are working hard to ensure the children of their contracted farmers are at school rather than in the tobacco field. (Photo: Taco Tuinstra)
The elimination of forced labor in the tobacco supply chain is a top priority for Alliance One International.
By Kenneth Robeson
It’s a problem that can’t be ignored: a lot of the tobacco industry’s leaf is sourced in developing countries with loose labor laws and/or weak enforcement mechanisms. For example, last November U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a “withhold release order” on imports into the U.S. of tobacco from Malawi based on a suspicion that forced labor was used in Malawi to produce the country’s tobacco crop.
The U.S. Tariff Act defines “forced labor” as “All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.” The term “forced labor or/and indentured labor” includes forced or indentured child labor.
Forced labor, says Nate Peeters, a spokesman for the Office of Public Affairs for the CBP, is “a global challenge that is not limited to a single industry, product or region. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that forced labor affects nearly 25 million people and generates an estimated $150 billion in profits every year.”
Indeed, forced labor is a global challenge that hurts millions of workers each year. The State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report and the Department of Labor’s International Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports offer specific information about countries and regions in which forced labor occurs. CBP issues withhold release orders based on allegations that forced labor was used to produce goods that are imported or that may be imported into the United States. Since September 2019, CBP investigated allegations of forced labor and issued withhold release orders on such products as hair accessories and garments manufactured in China, bone char produced in Brazil and disposable rubber gloves from Malaysia.
“Forced labor is a human rights violation that is antithetical to American values,” Peeters points out. “Companies that engage in forced labor subject their workers to threats of physical and sexual violence, withholding of wages, restriction of movement and other abuses. Moreover, imported goods made with forced labor undermine the ability of similar American-made products to be sold at a competitive price.”
Top priority
Michiel Reerink
To combat forced labor and other human rights violations in the tobacco business, leading leaf merchants, such as Alliance One International (AOI), are going to great lengths to ensure their supply chains comply with the highest standards.
The elimination of forced labor in global tobacco production “is a top priority for Alliance One International and all of our subsidiaries,” says Michiel Reerink, international corporate affairs director for AOI. “As part of our long-standing commitment, we purchase the vast majority of our tobacco through direct contracts with farmers, which helps ensure the crops we purchase are grown in compliance with our human rights policy, child labor policy and agricultural labor practices [ALP] program.”
Having found that poverty is a leading driver of forced labor globally, he continues, “we work closely with farmers to improve their crop quality and yield, thereby enhancing profitability. This can be one of the best long-term solutions [to creating long-term change]. Visibility into the supply chain is also important when addressing these issues.”
AOI’s team of field technicians works closely with contracted growers to identify the root causes of these issues and collaboratively develop an action plan that allows for true change to be implemented. In some cases, those root causes are systemic and involve cultural or regulatory issues that need to be overcome through long-term interventions and multi-stakeholder groups.
The company records farm-monitoring visits, including labor incidents, in its Sentri traceability platform. “This allows us to follow up with farmers to ensure action plans have been implemented and problems addressed,” Reerink explains. “In addition, it allows us to aggregate the results to focus our education and training and related CSR programs at the country/community level.”
Following this year’s withhold release orders on tobacco from Malawi, AOI has demonstrated to the satisfaction of CBP that there is no forced labor in its Malawi supply chain. In response, CBP lifted its restrictions on AOI imports of Malawi tobacco into the United States. As of June 3, 2020, tobacco imported from Malawi by AOI is again admissible at all U.S. ports of entry.
“From our perspective, labor challenges can be found throughout the global agricultural supply chain,” says Reerink. “Regardless of the country in which we are operating, we work with our contracted grower base to ensure their crops are produced in compliance with our various policies and programs which are aligned with the objective of eliminating forced labor.”
Reerink and his colleagues recognize that improving agricultural practices can take time, “particularly when we are attempting to change long-standing cultural practices, and we work with our contracted growers to implement new measures in ways that provide tangible benefits to them.”
In 2011, AOI introduced its ALP program worldwide. The standards in the program were designed to meet ILO standards. Through the program, the company monitors contracted farmers for compliance with numerous requirements to ensure the rights of farm workers are respected. Its policies and programs create a comprehensive framework that includes, among other restrictions, a prohibition against allowing anyone under the age of 18 to conduct any hazardous tasks, and utilizes a combination of grower education and training, farm monitoring, third-party audits and third-party stakeholder engagement to document and improve compliance.
For example, in Malawi, AOI personnel conduct farmer training and education in group settings as well as one-on-one during frequent farm-monitoring visits. In 2019, representatives visited each contracted farmer an average of 10 times per season. In 2019, they conducted over 139,000 individual farm visits there in a combination of announced, semi-announced and unannounced visits. Adds Reerink, “To help enhance awareness and comprehension of ALP, the local Alliance One Malawi team also created radio broadcasts and drama performances to expand understanding of the risks of child labor into the community.”
Multi-stakeholder involvement plays a key role in improving labor practices as they are often tied to long-standing cultural traditions. For example, once again in Malawi, in 2019 Alliance One Malawi established 179 ALP Village Committees involving farmers, village headmen, teachers and religious leaders trained by company staff. These committees were set up to promote public discussion about ALP, help farmers improve agronomic practices by gathering and sharing information, and encourage community buy-in, accelerating the implementation and acceptance of ALP among farmers and supporting ALP compliance within the community.
The protection of human rights is an agricultural sector issue, Reerink points out, not specific to the tobacco industry. “Some tobacco industry suppliers, including Alliance One, have taken actions with their respective contracted farmer bases that have led to significant improvements in the experiences of farmworkers. However, without the alignment and support of other tobacco suppliers and supply chains for other crops, implementing long-term solutions becomes much more of a challenge.” It will, he feels, take a continued multi-stakeholder effort to truly drive long-term change in labor practices and address some of the systemic challenges facing the agricultural supply chain.
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Clear and direct message
The battle against forced labor is ongoing. CBP has a unique statutory authority to prevent goods made through forced labor from entering the United States. Its Office of Trade investigates allegations of forced labor and if substantiated, directs enforcement actions. CBP issues a withhold release order when it has information that reasonably indicates that goods produced using forced labor may be imported into the United States. These orders instruct CBP personnel at ports of entry to detain shipments that contain goods manufactured in whole or in part with forced labor. Withhold release orders “send a clear and direct message to the trade community that CBP will not tolerate forced labor in U.S. supply chains,” Peeters says.
Industry, Peeters suggests, has “the duty to exercise reasonable care and due diligence to ensure that goods produced with forced labor do not enter their supply chains. Companies are on the frontline and should use all available information about the conditions of forced labor in countries where goods are sourced from to ensure they do not import goods produced with forced labor.”
Maintaining transparency of company supply chains can help companies identify and remediate forced labor found in supply chains. CBP will continue to investigate allegations and pursue enforcement actions where evidence reasonably indicates that goods are manufactured with forced labor imported to the United States.
Getting consumers involved
Consumer awareness, CBP’s Nate Peeters insists, is essential for eliminating forced labor.
“Companies will not sell products that consumers do not buy,” he notes. “CBP urges consumers to ask for more details about where and how their products are made and to use their economic power to tell companies that forced labor is against American values.”
Generating and sustaining consumer awareness “is a challenge,” notes Peeters, “but one that is essential to addressing forced labor in U.S. supply chains.”
CBP has been working with its nongovernment and media partners to communicate forced labor enforcement actions to U.S. consumers through press releases, social media content and TV and radio appearances. It also continues to communicate frequently with the trade community about forced labor concerns and measures that companies can take to ensure that they have clean supply chains.
The agency urges consumers to ask for more details about where and how their products are made. “The great deals that can be found online and in stores may be inexpensive because the products were made through modern slavery,” Peeters points out. “Americans can use their economic power to tell businesses that we will not tolerate forced labor in U.S. supply chains.”
Primary school children from Kasisi primary school received school supplies, including uniforms, shoes and note books.
Students in Tanzania’s Tabora region have benefited from money raised at the recent Global Tobacco Networking Forum in Antwerp, Belgium.
During the GTNF gala dinner, in June, the organizers auctioned off various items and donated the proceeds—almost $3,000—to the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT).
The ECLT has added the funds to its scholarship support program for students at a school in Kasisi Village in Urambo, Tabora region. The GTNF donation enables 72 children to buy uniforms, shoes and other materials required to attend school.
ECLT is running a project through two districts of Tabora. Thousands of children are enrolled in school or in vocational training thanks to the support of the project, collaboration from the district and the mobilization of volunteers from the villages who watch over the children and educate parents so that children are sent to school.
According to ECLT, children in tobacco-growing families are often forced to work on the farm because they are too poor to purchase school uniforms or materials.
In a four-year project, ECLT, along with its partners, are developing capacity of the district and local communities to provide for their children themselves and to ensure they stay in school even after the project ends.
During a recent conference in Lilongwe, Malawi’s government and other stakeholders endorsed a plan to eliminate child labor in agriculture. Malawi’s child labor incidence is among the highest in southern Africa.
Held Sept. 4-6, the Malawi National Conference on Child Labor in Agriculture was the first of its kind in Malawi. The event was convened by the Ministry of Labor and sponsored by the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT Foundation) in partnership with the International Labor Organization.
Themed “Our Children, Our Future,” the event drew more than 350 government representatives, agricultural stakeholders, members of labor organizations, business, civil society and NGOs—and children.
In her opening address, Malawi’s president, Joyce Banda, called for synergy among all stakeholders to end child labor. “I will not let children continue working in these estates instead of concentrating on their studies. And to you who are employing these kids, it is my humble plea that you stop such acts to give room to these children to be future leaders,” she said.
Under the banner “Anything for us, without us, is against us,” 40 children from Malawi’s agricultural industries presented recommendations for ending child labor.
The conference resulted in sector-by-sector agreement to actions to be implemented by 2016 and the Malawi government’s charge to conduct a National Child Labor Survey to map child labor and the effectiveness of programs in place to stop it.
