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Article

1 Jun 2013

Author:
Davuluri Venkateswarlu, India Committee of Netherlands

A tale of two companies [India]

…[I]ssues of child labour and minimum wages on the farms producing hybrid vegetable seeds for Nunhems and Bejo Sheetal is examined in the South Indian state of Karnataka. Nunhems has paid serious attention to the issue of child labour and has been implementing special measures to combat child labour on farms producing seed for its company. The issue of child labour has not received serious attention from Bejo Sheetal and it has not made any serious attempts to address it. Both companies still have to deal with the issues of payment of below minimum wages and wage discrimination in terms of gender. Though the issue of below minimum wages received some attention from Nunhems, it is yet to implement any systematic plan, like it did in case of child labour, to address the minimum wage issue. [Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Nunhems/Bayer Crop Science & Bejo Sheetal to respond, Bejo Sheetal declined to respond, Bayer Crop Science's response included]

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