After 8 months of campaigning, 10 virtual tea parties and over 200 emails to T2 and its parent company Unilever, your voices have had impact.
We applaud Unilever's commitment to raise living standards for low-paid workers!
Unilever is one of the first big companies to make such a commitment and with close to 60,000 suppliers in over 160 countries the impact of this commitment for workers and their families could be wide reaching.
The next equally important step is to translate this commitment into action.
The next equally important step is to translate this commitment into action.
For Unilever to achieve their commitment by 2030 it's important they:
- Explains how far their commitment extends - will it reach to the most vulnerable tea workers in their supply chain?
- Commissions an independent study of what a living wage would be in Assam; and
- Develops a roadmap to 2030, a plan for how they will raise wages.
Your voices are more important now than ever.
Use our email form below to continue to call on T2 and Unilever to ensure this commitment results in changes for tea workers in Assam.
We're working with Be Slavery Free on this campaign. The button below will direct you to their website, where you'll find a form to email T2 directly.
Use our email form below to continue to call on T2 and Unilever to ensure this commitment results in changes for tea workers in Assam.
We're working with Be Slavery Free on this campaign. The button below will direct you to their website, where you'll find a form to email T2 directly.
What else can you do?
Host a tea party.Host your own virtual or in-person tea party with family, friends or colleagues. Hosts can use our tea party pack as a guide plus a PowerPoint deck which includes two explainer videos. There is no need to be an expert.
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Refer us to your workplace.Refer us to a workplace or community organisation that might like to host a tea party for staff or community members. Email Project Didi below to have a chat or to make an introduction!
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Watch our virtual tea party.Watch our tea party with Fiona Gooch of Traidcraft Exchange, whose campaign persuaded 6 of the UK's biggest tea brands, including Unilever, to reveal their suppliers. We now know where more than 70% of tea sold in the UK comes from.
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Tea workers need a wage that allows them to live with safety and dignity.
LOW WAGES
Tea workers in Assam receive as little as AUD$2.80 per day. This is not enough to meet their basic needs. |
FEW ALTERNATIVE OPPORTUNITIES
Under Indian law, plantations must provide housing, food, sanitation facilities and child care. Employers inflate the value of these benefits to justify low wages. As tea must be processed soon after it is picked, workers have no option but to live on the plantations, if they want a job. |
WOMEN & GIRLS BEAR THE BURDEN OF POVERTY
Women take on the most labour-intensive, lowest paid job of picking tea leaves. Traffickers prey on their desire for a better life, deceiving them with false promises and trapping them in exploitation and sexual slavery in Indian cities. |
A living income helps workers send their children to school, withstand crises, avoid debt and
protect themselves against traffickers’ deceptive offers.
protect themselves against traffickers’ deceptive offers.
To find out more about a living wage go to the Global Living Wage Coalition.
Why T2?
Did you know T2 is owned by Unilever?
Unilever, along with two other companies, owns roughly 80% of the global tea market.
Unilever, along with two other companies, owns roughly 80% of the global tea market.
Unilever sources their tea from both company-owned tea plantations and a network of suppliers, that includes over 300 suppliers in Assam alone. Unilever has industry leading policies for fair compensation for their direct employees, but we would like to see these extended to their suppliers to ensure tea workers receive a living wage.
A living wage is within reach for tea workers in Assam.
Oxfam estimates that workers on plantations in Assam currently receive around AU$0.06 per 100g of bagged black tea. They would require only the equivalent of AU$0.15 to enable a living wage to be paid.
T2 sells 100g of their Assam black tea for AU$12.
A living wage is within reach for tea workers in Assam.
Oxfam estimates that workers on plantations in Assam currently receive around AU$0.06 per 100g of bagged black tea. They would require only the equivalent of AU$0.15 to enable a living wage to be paid.
T2 sells 100g of their Assam black tea for AU$12.
We’re asking T2 to commission an independent study of what a living wage would be for tea workers in Assam and develop a plan to raise their wages and living conditions to achieve this within 3 years.
Where can I find more resources?
Click on the two boxes below.
Learn more
- Watch our first virtual tea party!
- Watch this short video on the truth about tea plantations (2 minutes).
- Watch this interview with Manju, who was trafficked from a tea plantation in Assam – CNN Freedom Project (4 minutes).
- Read this Guardian article about how poverty wages for tea pickers are fuelling a trade in child slavery (5 minute read).
- Read Be Slavery Free's Not my cup of tea report on human trafficking in Assam (20 minute read).
- Read Traidcraft Exchange's report on how the tea industry traps women in poverty in Assam (15 minute read).
- Read Oxfam's report on the human cost of Assam tea. It is based on research across 50 tea plantations in Assam (20 minute read).
Share the campaign
Download our campaign assets to share on social media.
Tile 1: I just signed up to do #SomethingForSlavery.
Tile 2: Low wages leave tea workers vulnerable to modern slavery.
Tile 3: Advocate for a living wage.
Tile 1: I just signed up to do #SomethingForSlavery.
Tile 2: Low wages leave tea workers vulnerable to modern slavery.
Tile 3: Advocate for a living wage.
Project Didi Australia is committed to restoring hope, dignity and independence to women and girls in Nepal, who have experienced trafficking and gender-based violence, through trauma-informed care, family strengthening and reintegration, education and employment pathways.
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ABN 68 320 267 277
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