June 2021

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This report deals with the IOI Group, which at the time of writing this report supplied oil palm-based raw materials to Neste and Nestlé, among others.

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Workers interviewed are dissatisfied with the estate’s wage policies and practises. Instead of the daily/monthly wage promised to the employees at the time of accepting the job, workers are paid a performance-based salary that varies from job to job and is calculated in a complex way. No records are kept of working hours. [...] According to the IOI the reason why workers are paid less than the minimum wage is that they work too slowly and therefore do not reach their target. However, the company promised to intervene in the recording of hours worked.

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5. Recommendations

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• The IOI should gain a greater understanding of human rights and human rights education should also be provided to the estate management. [...]
• The IOI should shift the focus of its monitoring of its recruitment process from mechanistic and bureaucratic document checks to qualitative monitoring. [...]
• The IOI must reimburse recruitment fees to all employees who have paid recruitment fees. [...]
• The IOI should simplify its pay system and align it with its minimum wage policy published in 2017. [...]
• The IOI must investigate why complaints about its terms and conditions of employment were not taken seriously before Finnwatch intervened.