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Science Forum Index » Agriculture Forum » BAYER affiliate PROAGRO uses child labour
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| Badant |
 Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 11:26 am |
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Guest
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Child labour at suppliers of Bayer-affiliate ProAgro
Coalition against BAYER-dangers
Global March Against Child Labour (Germany)
To: Werner Wenning, CEO of Bayer AG
Dr. Jochen Wulff, CEO of Bayer CropScience AG
Dear Mr. Wenning, dear Dr. Wulff,
We, the Coalition against BAYER-dangers, Germanwatch and the Global
March against Child Labour, are writing to express our deepest concern
at the intense employment of children in the planting of cottonseeds
in India. Your Bayer affiliate, ProAgro, is one of the beneficiaries
of this process. To prevent ongoing harm to children we urge you to
take immediate steps against this practise.
The research of the "Glocal Research and Consultancy Services" (GRCS)
institute in Hyderabad/India, published under the title "Child Labour
and Transnational Seed Companies in Hybrid Cottonseed Production"
(translated into German in July 2003), proves the employment of the
children at the suppliers of ProAgro, Monsanto, Unilever and other
companies. This is a violation of the ILO-basic working conditions
conduct, as well as of other international standards such as the
OECD-Guidelines on Multinationals. One of the companies benefiting is
ProAgro, which has been a Bayer affiliate since 1999.
Bayer has committed itself to the abolition of child labour, for
example by joining the UN Global Compact. Your company has meanwhile
admitted the problems with the Indian seed suppliers. But only in
September 2003 a meeting took place between the seed suppliers
involved and the Indian initiative on children rights, the Mamidipudi
Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MV Foundation) in Hyderabad/ India. At
this meeting companies, including ProAgro, took over responsibility on
children's working conditions at their suppliers. Since then there has
been much delay without putting the commitments into place. On
December 13th 2003 another meeting of the MV Foundation and the
companies involved took place where a specific plan of action with
detailed activities has been created and agreed upon.
We expect from Bayer and its affiliate ProAgro to take up all required
actions to end the employment of children and to immediately implement
the plan of action. In addition we urge you to finance an education
programme for the children who have suffered from child labour at your
suppliers. This education programme should be developed together with
the local authorities.
Your commitment to the abolition of child labour at Bayer companies,
as well as your contract clauses on preventing your suppliers of using
child labour, are not enough in order to fulfil the target. Agreements
made with local contractors need to be monitored. In order to prevent
your suppliers from using child labour, the prices paid for their
products need to be high enough so that employment of adults is
profitable to the suppliers.
Educational re-integration for children who have been forced to drop
school in order to work is seldom successful. After each employment
period with an average duration of seven months the children concerned
- basically girls - do not get any further formal education. These
children are at the age of six to fourteen. Through the work for the
suppliers of Bayer/ProAgro, who depend on the contracts, the children
have lost their options for the future. Their health is also
endangered as the labour protection laws, such as when using
herbicides, are not applied.
We are in close co-operation with our partners in India, the MV
Foundation. From Germany we will observe carefully the steps taken of
Bayer/ProAgro and the implementation of the plan of action. As
Bayer/ProAgro working methods violate the OECD Guidelines for
Multinationals, we are presently evaluating the possibility of a
complaint to the relevant authorities.
What are the steps that you, as well as those responsible at ProAgro,
will take in order to immediately stop all use of child labour at your
suppliers?
We look forward to your answer.
Yours sincerely
Philipp Mimkes
Coalition against BAYER-dangers
Postfach 15 04 18
40081 Duesseldorf, Germany
CBGnetwork@aol.com
Cornelia Heydenreich
Germanwatch e.V.
Voßstraße 1
10117 Berlin, Germany
heydenreich@germanwatch.org
Rainer Kruse
Global March against Child Labour/ Germany
Spemannstr. 15
70186 Stuttgart, Germany
kruserainer@surfeu.de
Coalition against BAYER-dangers
www.CBGnetwork.org
CBGnetwork@aol.com
Fax: (+49) 211-333 940 Tel: (+49) 211-333 911
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| Jim Webster |
| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 12:18 pm |
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Guest
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"Badant" <badant@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:a65177d7.0401270826.717c5572@posting.google.com...
Quote: Child labour at suppliers of Bayer-affiliate ProAgro
Coalition against BAYER-dangers
so does virtually all family farming
And the prices that work their way down the chain in the UK pretty well
every supermarket chain could be convicted of this. I suspect the same can
be said of the USA as well.
But the public like cheap food
Jim Webster |
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