PRESS RELEASE
RSPO, JAPBUSI, ILO, and CNV CO-HOST WORKSHOP ON HUMAN AND LABOUR RIGHTS
RSPO and industry players work to identify how best to educate and empower workers in Indonesia
Jakarta, 21 March 2019: Today, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), International Labour Organization (ILO), and Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond (CNV) International, co-hosted a workshop with Jaringan Serikat Pekerja dan Serikat Buruh Sawit Indonesia (JAPBUSI); the Indonesian Palm Oil Labour Network, to further educate and strengthen the strategies and interventions relating to human and labour rights in the palm oil sector.
With nine Indonesian Labour Union Federations and four Confederations in attendance, the workshop provided an ideal platform for RSPO and industry players to hear the voices of oil palm workers, as well as to identify ways to educate and empower them to better understand their rights within the sustainable development of palm oil.
RSPO Human Rights and Social Standards Manager, Kamini Visvananthan, said, “Workshops like this are invaluable to the work we do as it helps us better understand the challenges and opportunities faced by oil palm workers at the local level here in Indonesia. It also gives us the opportunity to highlight the important changes relating to labour and human rights in our revised certification standards; RSPO’s Principles and Criteria (P&C) 2018,” she said.
To help illustrate these key changes to the group, RSPO drew connections between some of the issues identified in a recent labour compliance study conducted in Indonesia by Profundo, and how these were addressed in the P&C 2018, including best practices for implementation.
The Executive Secretary of JAPBUSI, Nursanna said, “We feel that an initiative like what we have today is important, in order to encourage trade unions to know more about the new RSPO Principles and Criteria, which can be used for negotiation with companies,” she said.
In the coming months, RSPO’s Labour Task Force (LTF) will be producing an auditing guidance document to assist auditors with auditing labour compliances in their auditing process, a guidance on Child Rights for Palm Oil Companies, and a guidance document on implementing a Decent Living Wage (DLW), in line with the RSPO’s move to pay a decent living wage to all workers in RSPO certified units. To this end, RSPO will make further efforts to strengthen its efforts to mitigate labour abuses in the sector.
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About JAPBUSI
JAPBUSI is a network of Indonesian oil palm trade unions and unions, an ad-hoc network established to promote justice and welfare for workers working in the oil palm sector in Indonesia from upstream to downstream. This network is committed and collaborates together in voicing, advocating for, and fighting for the rights of workers/laborers in the palm oil industry in Indonesia.
About ILO
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, pursuing its founding mission that social justice is essential to universal and lasting peace.
The ILO aims to ensure that it serves the needs of working women and men by bringing together governments, employers and workers to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes. The very structure of the ILO, where workers and employers together have an equal voice with governments in its deliberations, shows social dialogue in action. It ensures that the views of the social partners are closely reflected in ILO labour standards, policies and programmes.
About CNV International
CNV International Foundation is part of the National Confederation of Christian Trade Unions CNV in the Netherlands. CNV International has worked with trade unions in developing countries since its establishment in 1967. Together with its partner organisations, CNV International protects and promotes workers’ rights by means of a consultative and coherent model, based on Christian social thought.
Social dialogue, trade union pluralism and workers’ individual responsibility are key values. CNV International’s mission is to contribute to Decent Work in developing countries by strengthening the position of workers in the formal and informal economy.
About RSPO
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from the seven sectors of the palm oil industry including oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs, and social or developmental NGOs.
This multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO, such that seats in the Board of Governors, Steering Committees and Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders in working together to reach decisions by consensus, and achieving RSPO’s shared vision of making sustainable palm oil the norm.
The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta (ID), London (UK), Zoetermeer (NL), Beijing (CN) and Bogotá (CO).
For further information, kindly contact:
Dan Strechay Tiur Rumondang
Interim Director Outreach and Engagement Director of Operations Indonesia
T: +603 2302 1500 T: +6221 2506 417/18
[email protected] [email protected]
SIARAN PERS
RSPO, JAPBUSI, ILO, dan CNV MENYELENGGARAKAN LOKAKARYA TENTANG HAK ASASI MANUSIA DAN TENAGA KERJA
RSPO dan pelaku industri bekerja untuk mengidentifikasi cara terbaik untuk mendidik dan memberdayakan para pekerja di Indonesia
Jakarta, 21 Maret 2019: Hari ini, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), International Labour Organization (ILO), dan Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond (CNV) International, menyelenggarakan lokakarya dengan Jaringan Serikat Pekerja dan Serikat Buruh Sawit Indonesia (JAPBUSI); untuk mengedukasi serta memperkuat strategi dan intervensi yang berkaitan dengan Hak Asasi Manusia dan Hak Tenaga Kerja di sektor minyak sawit.
Dihadiri oleh 9 Federasi Serikat Buruh Indonesia dan 4 Konfederasi, lokakarya ini menyediakan platform yang ideal bagi RSPO dan pelaku industri untuk mendengarkan aspirasi dari pekerja kelapa sawit, serta mengidentifikasi cara untuk mengedukasi dan memberdayakan mereka untuk lebih memahami hak-hak para pekerja di dalam pengembangan minyak sawit berkelanjutan.
Manajer Hak Asasi Manusia & Standar Sosial RSPO, Kamini Visvananthan, mengatakan, “Lokakarya seperti ini sangat berharga bagi pekerjaan yang kami lakukan karena membantu kami untuk lebih memahami tantangan dan peluang yang dihadapi oleh pekerja kelapa sawit di tingkat lokal di Indonesia. Sesi ini juga memberi kita kesempatan untuk menyoroti perubahan penting yang terkait dengan perburuhan dan Hak Asasi Manusia dalam standar sertifikasi kami yang baru saja direvisi; Prinsip dan Kriteria (P&C) RSPO 2018," katanya.
Untuk memudahkan dalam memberikan gambaran terkait perubahan-perubahan utama kepada kelompok ini, RSPO mengaitkannya dengan antara beberapa masalah yang diidentifikasi dalam studi kepatuhan tenaga kerja yang baru-baru ini dilakukan di Indonesia oleh Profundo, dan bagaimana hal ini dibahas dalam P&C 2018, termasuk praktik-praktik terbaik untuk implementasi.
Sekretaris Eksekutif JAPBUSI, Nursanna berkata, “Kami merasa bahwa inisiatif seperti yang kita lakukan hari ini sangatlah penting, guna mendorong Serikat Pekerja untuk mengetahui lebih jauh tentang Prinsip & Kriteria RSPO yang baru, yang dapat digunakan untuk acuan dalam bernegosiasi dengan perusahaan”.
Dalam beberapa bulan mendatang, Gugus Tugas Tenaga Kerja (Labour Taskforce) RSPO akan merilis dokumen panduan audit untuk membantu auditor dalam mengaudit kepatuhan terkait aspek tenaga kerja dalam proses audit mereka, panduan tentang Hak Anak untuk Perusahaan Minyak Sawit, dan dokumen panduan tentang penerapan Kehidupan yang Layak. Upah (Decent Living Wage), sejalan dengan langkah RSPO untuk menyediakan upah yang layak untuk semua pekerja di unit bersertifikasi RSPO. Untuk tujuan ini, RSPO akan melakukan upaya lebih lanjut guna memperkuat upayanya untuk mengurangi penyalahgunaan tenaga kerja di sektor ini.
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