Wage issues in the tea industry of West Java

As I drove through the humble villages of tea workers in West Java, the lives of tea pickers were the focus of my my thoughts and feelings. The CIFOR driver had told me that tea pickers earned $1 per day in the plantations. The wage seemed so impossibly low. Is it enough to provide food, clothing and housing needs along with some discretionary income for the workers and their dependants?

Little Mosque in a tea plantation.
Oxfam and some tea companies have thought about such questions too. As a result, they created a partnership called the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP). The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) consists of the following firms: Ahmad Tea, All About Tea, Bell Tea, Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate Ltd, Booths, D.E Master Blenders 1753, DJ Miles & Co Ltd, Imperial Tea Court, Imporient UK Ltd, Intertee, Jing Tea, Mars Drinks, Metropolitan Tea Co, Mother Parkers Tea & Co ee Inc, Newby teas, Ostfriesische Tee Gesellschaft (OTG), Reginald Ames Ltd, The Republic of Tea, Ringtons, Tazo Tea, Tea Ltd, The Tetley Group Ltd, Twinings, United Coffee, Windmill. These brands appear on the grocery store shelves in my little village in Canada.

The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) is a non-profit member organization of tea companies. It wants to improve the lives and the environment of tea workers. But first the partnership has decided to do research about these issues.

As a consequence, the ETP has published a report in May 2013 called, “Understanding Wage Issues in the Tea Industry: Report from a multi-stakeholder project.” This report provides a perspective of the wage reality for the tea plantations that I visited in West Java.

The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) launched its project in 2010. Desk and field research was done in 2011 in three case study areas: Malawi (Africa), West Java (Indonesia) and Assam (India). It focused on hired labour on plantations with a focus on tea pickers.

The ETP research found that basic cash wages might be increased by bonuses for attendance or performance. Allowances or additional cash payments could be given to meet cost of living increases or accommodation costs. In-kind benefits, such as access to medical care, were an important part of total benefits.

For West Java, the research team found that tea pickers’ wages were above international poverty benchmarks. Local researchers estimated that wages in West Java were close to a living wage if benefits are included. However, in absolute terms, they represent less than one-quarter of the national average income in Indonesia. That’s what a West Java tea pickers’ wage of $1 per day boils down to.

Now a nationally owned tea plantation company at Bogor has decided to convert its tea plantations into fruit plantations by 2018.

Reference:
Oxfam International, E. T. P. (2013). Understanding Wage Issues in the Tea Industry: Report from a multi-stakeholder project. Oxford, United Kingdom, Oxfam International, Ethical Tea Partnership: 31.



PTPN VIII to convert tea plantations into fruit plantations.

Sun, May 19 2013 15:46 | 403 Views







Comments

  1. Gene AnnOctober 20, 2013 at 12:39 PM

    As a tea drinker i am glad to see that my two favourite brands - Tetley and Tazo are involved in this group. However, i think they could work faster to improve work and pay conditions for tea harvesters.

    ReplyDelete

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