Community

On the plantations, we make sure everybody who works for us has access to medical care either in a local hospital or in clinics and medical centres we build and staff. We provide crêches to care for workers’ children as well as build and staff nursery schools. For primary and secondary schools, we either provide buildings or organise buses to transport students to the nearest government schools. All our estate and mill houses have vegetable plots attached to them for which the Group freely provides seeds, advice and encouragement to grow fruits and vegetables for the households’ consumption. Plantation co-operative stores are established to sell general provisions at a subsidised price. This is all part of our commitment to ensure employees receive essential community services, salaries and benefits that are commensurate with the “Decent Living Wage (“DLW”) as well as mitigate the impacts of food security.

We have permanent community development teams on site who get to know the village heads of the communities where we operate and maintain an open dialogue with them on any issues that affect their communities. In this way we support the ILO Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. Besides supporting the community with our plasma schemes, we provide business and work opportunities by emphasising the hiring of local people for plantation jobs as well as sourcing from local contractors and vendors whenever possible. The Group works with the University of Indonesia to produce comprehensive social surveys that objectively document the status of individual groups and communities on and around the Group’s operations and how we can influence their situation for the better. Results from these ongoing surveys allows the Group to focus on its contributions towards the community, such as delivering clean water and instigating food security measures in times of need to provide rice to the most underprivileged families in villages surrounding our plantations.

In its dealings with employees, smallholder co-operatives, independent smallholders, contractors, suppliers or peoples living in and around its projects, the Group seeks to respect the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Human Rights, notably the Articles relating to employment, working hours, standard of living and education. It also endorses the United Nations conventions on the elimination of racial discrimination (ICERD) and discrimination against women (CEDAW) as well as the United Nations covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (ICESCR), notably in respect of labour rights and the right to health, education, and an adequate standard of living.