How to improve labour conditions in Indonesian palm oil plantations – 2018

During one of their current programs, CNV Internationaal supports the trade unions in the palm oil sector. They support these trade unions to raise awareness among palm oil companies on the improvement of the implementation labour rights and to motivate other companies to follow best practices.
Palm oil is used a lot in all kind of products we use daily: pizza, peanut butter, shampoo, make-up, cookies, chocolate, and many more products.
Still, there are many problems concerning working conditions in the palm oil sector:

– Workers are forced to work unpaid overtime in order to reach unrealistic production targets

– These high targets have motivated workers to bring their wives and children to work, thus giving rise to child labour

– Other rights violations found in the field include union busting, no employment contracts, inadequate equipment provisions and inadequate medical services

Several companies now cooperate with CNV Internationaal and improve the labour conditions for workers in the palm oil sector, among which is Wilmar, world’s largest palm oil company. In January of 2018 Janneke Bosman, the Advisor of our Board, together with CNV Internationaal travelled to Indonesia to produce a movie which shows what this cooperation looks like.

We are happy to announce that you can now see the results in the attached video.