" Rainforest Alliance suspends James Finlay, Ekaterra product licences over sex abuse case"

Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organisation that works in business, agriculture and forests to protect workers and create better working conditions for them, besides building local economies. A documentary by the BBC, published on February 20, lifted the lid on the sexual exploitation of female workers by managers, supervisors and contractors in the two companies. "For both tea estates - Ekaterra and James Finlay a - audits confirmed the presence of non-conformities of the social and management criteria of the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standards," the alliance said in a statement on Thursday. "Based on these results, we have taken the decision to suspend the certification of both certificate holders in accordance with the Rainforest Alliance Certification and Auditing Rules V1.2" It states. The decision to suspend the certification was communicated to the two companies on May 9. In effect, tea that had been shipped out before the suspension was communicated is not affected, but the exports from now henceforth will not be accepted in particular markets abroad as they are not Rainforest Alliance-traceable. [...]

Following the release of the documentary by the BBC and a series of special reports carried by the Nation, the two companies said they had separately put in place measures to remedy the situation, including suspending those involved and severing ties with the contractors. International supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury’s have condemned the incidents while Starbucks said it had immediately suspended purchasing from James Finlay in Kenya – until the matter is resolved. Ekaterra said that as a result of the expose, it was implementing the Kenya Human Rights Commission's 2011 report on gender-based violence against women. Ms Slyvia Ten Den, the Ekaterra managing director in charge of Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, said the company was not aware of cases of sexual abuses prior to the expose published by the BBC. [...] James Finlay, a subsidiary of the Swire Group in London, said it had commissioned two independent investigations - by NGO Partner Africa, which specialises in ethical working practices, and law firm Bowmans - to examine the specific allegations in the heart wrenching documentary.