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Addressing the Secrets of the Kenyan Tea Industry: What needs to be done?
Unilever Corporation
800 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs
New Jersey 07632
T: +1 201 894 7760
MediaRelations.usa@unilever.com
Dear Micheal B. Polk, President of Unilever:
It is widely known in the black tea industry, that Lipton Tea owns harvesting plantations in Eastern
Africa. Specifically within Kenya, these plantations are located in Kericho, Kenya. There are however multiple issues with worker’s treatment in this location that needs to be addressed. There are two sets of issues we would like to ask you to address: long term and short term goals.
Long Term Goals
• Ensuring better Housing and Social Services:
o Aims to increase worker reliability, performance consistency, and corporation output
o Recognize that improving physical health is not the only key to success
o Provide housing standards that are kept in accordance to Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights requirements
• Sexual harassment prevention & Increased Wages:
o Because women are a large percentage of the labor force alleviating sexual harassment should be a high priority
o There should be provision of an hourly salary at a higher wage than the present
o Income can no longer be varied because work is seasonal, workers need income stability
• Status of a “temporary worker:
o Removal employee label of “temporary worker”
o These individuals receive little work and on average a lower salary
o Consider a change in not only the distribution of wages but also creating a time frame in which an individual can remain a “temporary worker”
•No new workers would be hired under the temporary status
o Work with current temporary workers to have their statuses changed
o Unilever must comply by their own laws and moral code outlined in their handbook
o Provide all their full-time employees with the proper benefits and housing
We conclude these remarks with utmost respect and ask you consider our ideas to bring about changes
to improve the health and well beings of the works involved in the Kenyan black tea market. Unilever should
respect the humanity of the worker’s and strive to provide the best conditions for their worker’s.
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The tea business in Kenya is spear headed by the company of Unilever. Thus,
our primary target for who has the power to hold the power for change. These are the President
of Unilever, Michael Polk and his CEO, Paul Polman.
