The IUF is supporting a complaint by tea workers about bad working conditions in Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd (APPL) tea gardens in Assam. APPL is an associate company of Tata Global Beverages. The complaint, which documents abusive living and working conditions, child labour, interference with trade union rights and poor health and safety, has been made to the Compliance Officer of the International Finance Corporation, the lending arm of the World Bank, which has a 20% share in the APPL.
A major part of the problem facing tea workers in Assam is the denial of the right to join a genuine trade union. They are compelled to join Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha which, as the complaint explains, is “in league with management”.
IUF General Secretary, Ron Oswald commented, “We have already confronted APPL in defence of Nowera Nuddy workers [1] and over a death from pesticide poisoning [2]. Assam tea workers have our support. The IFC must investigate fully the complaint”.