13 August 2020

Enabling Workers Voices to be heard

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Enabling Workers Voices to be heard

Proforest is implementing a trial of ‘workers voice’ tools at palm oil mills in Latin America and Southeast Asia, in collaboration with Cargill, PepsiCo, RSPO and Ulula. We work with mill managers, and workers to roll out anonymous automated telephone surveys of workers on their employment and recruitment conditions, and to provide a grievance hotline for reporting on specific incidents. The trial is designed to help traders and manufacturers understand whether such new technology could help them manage risks in their supply chains, and to more effectively target support to their suppliers to identify and address labour rights issues. The project will help mill managers to identify whether there are any systemic problems in the way workers in their supply base are recruited and employed and to identify particularly vulnerable groups. Experiences from Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia will also help RSPO to understand whether ‘worker voice’ technology could form part of the future verification of labour practices at certified mills.