"LafargeHolcim accused of abandoning child labour victims"

The world’s largest cement maker has been criticised by two Swiss non-governmental groups for failing to resolve alleged child labour issues in Uganda. The Franco-Swiss multinational rejects the accusations...

The subsidiary in question, Hima Cement Limited, and LafargeHolcim denied resorting to the use of child labour in their supply chain. But in January 2017, Hima Cement, which was acquired by Lafarge in 1999, announced that it would stop buying raw materials from artisanal miners and only source from mechanised quarries employing adults. The same month LafargeHolcim commissioned an investigation by an international independent auditor, which concluded that there was no material evidence that children had worked for Hima Cement or for any of its other suppliers...NGOs [recently] criticised the fact that LafargeHolcim’s report was never made public…The NGOs urged the cement maker to acknowledge its responsibility for child labour and renewed their demands for support for the former child labourers to help them make up for missing school years.

In reply, LafargeHolcim again denied to the Swiss News Agency that it had resorted to the use of child labour. It also recalled that it had helped people in the region by financing the construction of toilets for 150 homes in Uganda.