New collective agreement for palm oil workers on more plantations in Indonesia

It often takes a long time to realise sustainable changes. In Sumatra, this led to a beautiful result: a collective labour agreement, signed by a large number of employers and trade unions. An important improvement for all employees on the participating plantations who have been given an employment contract as a result.

A thorough survey by CNV Internationaal in 2017 already made it clear that the majority of workers on palm oil plantations were working without a contract, on a daily wage basis. The workers have to harvest up to 1,300 kilograms of palm oil fruit every day.  

In practice, this was often only feasible if women and children helped. It also turned out that the drinking water by the workers’ living near the plantations was polluted, most likely by pesticides. Children in particular suffered from skin diseases.