"Endless pain of operating tea-plucking machines"

A few years shy of 40, Nelson* walks weakly with a thick orthopaedic belt. He tightens the cream fabric with a velcro tape to ease the back pain that resulted from nearly 10 years of pulling tea-harvesting machines, commonly known as MH. Nelson has been working for Unilever, now Ekaterra, since 2004. “We used to pick tea with our hands, which was easy. After the machines were introduced in 2007, things went wrong. Our health was compromised,” he said. Many workers have suffered in silence as they fear losing their jobs should they complain to the management or the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU), whose Secretary General Francis Atwoli doubles up as the Central Organisation and Trade Unions (Cotu) chief...So bad is the situation that some injured workers have filed a case against James Finlay in Scotland. The 1,300 employees accuse the company of forcing them to work for 12 hours in estates spread across Kericho and Bomet counties....

Ekaterra told the Sunday Nation that the employees are treated by certified health workers when they fall sick. “We have elaborate safety and health programmes. In addition to carrying out safety risk assessments, our employees undergo annual occupational health examinations at government-accredited hospitals,” the company said in its statement. It denied targeting particular employees for dismissal...James Finlay said the safety and welfare of everyone connected with its business is always a priority.