What’s the difference between a headache caused by an ailments or symptoms of poisoning?
What if this illness is not just bad luck, but part of the dangerous working conditions in oil palm plantations?
What should we do if these dangerous working conditions are indeed becoming a destiny that threatens the health and safety of us, our children and grandchildren in the future?
As we already knew, the palm oil industry has 3D (Dirty, Dangerous and Demanding) working conditions that put workers and their families in hazardous situations that are difficult to avoid. Amidst rows of huge oil palm plantations, palm oil workers work on flexible contracts that reduce the company’s responsibility for their health. They are exposed to a range of hazardous working conditions, including biological (wildlife, pests and insects), physical (heavy machinery and equipment) and chemical (herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers). The situation is exacerbated by the unequal power relations between workers and the enormous power of the company to intimidate them.
The palm oil workers were faced with a dilemma. How can the fertiliser workers, who are mostly casual labourers, be healthy and safe when they have to sow 600 kilograms (15-16 sacks) for 7 hours in PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) made of cheap, hot latex? Not to mention the physical challenges of the plantation, from peaty soil, slippery footbridges, unfenced ditches and animal attacks. Just as importantly, how can you think about long-term health risks such as internal organ disease and cancer when access to public health services provided by the company and the government in the plantation area is very limited?
Similar to the fertiliser workers’ dilemma, another 16 male and female oil palm workers in the agrochemicals department are also experiencing the contradiction between their working conditions and health problems. They are victims of the palm oil industry’s focus on monoculture productivity, while ignoring the social imperative of reproductive responsibility. In this context, responsibility for health is taken for granted, as if workers volunteer their labour and good health. At the same time, the political economy of state social security is segmenting health services for workers and making them worse. As a result, various health problems and accidents at work are individualised as the responsibility of the workers themselves, without proper treatment. Ironically, rather than being systematically addressed, these problems are continually exacerbated by weak state oversight of the industry, the global market’s reluctance to recognise the role of workers in achieving a ‘sustainable palm oil industry’, and the ups and downs of plantation trade unions.
This research addresses the dilemma of the agrochemical workers’ dilemma by analysing the monoculture interests in conflict with the fulfilment of palm oil workers’ health through an exploration of OSH ideas, regulations and practices in the field. The fieldwork period were along 2021 – 2022. This paper used participatory action research methods with two trade unions in Ketapang and Sambas, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In addition, this research also took place in Bagan Serai, Sungai Siput, dan Batang Berjuntai Malaysia (see the research summary in the download link). All the workers were actively involved in discussion, identifying stakeholders, documenting illnesses and advocating their rights in the company level.
There are five parts to this research, starting with methodology, framework, hazardous work processes, the buried data on illnesses and accidents that we call ‘creeping in silence‘, and conclusions and recommendations. We begin with a discussion of flexible labour relations and the structure of hazardous work on plantations. The final section of the paper includes stories of workers’ struggles for the right to safety and helath rights. In the final chapter, we also capture the challenges of workers’ struggles in the face of structural difficulties that mean their problems are often localised and limited by access to appropriate treatment.
In the end, this research aimed to encourage readers to understand the conditions of safety and health of palm oil workers as a terrain of workers’ struggle. On the one hand, OHS rules – defined by capitals- can become artificial regulations that bind workers through limited technical regulations, minimal infrastructure, audit pressure, and demands for zero accidents. But on the other hand, through strong social organisation and capacity building of workers in labour rights, occupational health and safety, OHS regulations can be an entry point to fight for workers’ welfare.
Let’s kick off this conversation and share our voice in the OSH discussion in oil palm plantations. Get the full scoop in Creeping in Silence, which you can download right here:
In solidarity,
TPOLS Secretariat