Exploitative working conditions in the oil palm plantations’ industry in Indonesia are persistent and the main victims are mostly women. Although this situation is often overlooked, the production process of the world’s largest producer of palm oil is strongly...
Sawit Watch Airs Concerns Over Planned Revision of Manpower Law
Photo: Palm Oil Harvest Workers. Source: Sawit WatchPalm oil watchdog Sawit Watch is airing concerns that a plan by the Ministry of Manpower to revise the Law on Manpower could lead to the legitimation of unfair manpower practices.“The revision of the Law on Manpower...
Indonesian Workers Coalition Demands Specific Labor Law for Indonesian Palm Oil Sector
Photo: A pile of palm oil fruit bunches. Source: TPOLSThe Coalition of Oil Palm Workers (KBS) is calling on the government to come out with a regulation that specifically governs the rights and obligations of workers in the palm oil sector, saying that existing laws...
Koalisi Buruh Sawit Menuntut Regulasi Ketenagakerjaan Khusus untuk Sektor Sawit
Foto: tumpukan tandan buah kelapa sawit. Sumber: TPOLSKoalisi Buruh Sawit (KBS) menuntut pemerintah untuk mengeluarkan undang-undang yang mengatur hak dan kewajiban pekerja di sektor kelapa sawit. Menurut KBS, regulasi yang ada saat ini tidak melindungi buruh di...
Sawit Watch: Presidential Instruction on Sustainable Palm Oil Fails to Address Root of Problems
Palm Oil Plantation Nursery AreaPresidential Instruction number 6 of 2019 on the management of a sustainable palm oil industry for 2019-2024, recently signed by President Joko Widodo, has failed to address the root problems in the industry, including the problems...
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Sambas Declaration for Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry
Introduction On 28-29th November 2023, an international conference on “Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry” was held in Sambas, West Kalimantan in Indonesia. The conference was attended by 140 participants, mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia,...
Creeping in Silence: Occupational Health and Safety in Palm Oil Plantation
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...
[TPOLS NETWORK TALK 3] Sharing Session between Labour and Environmental Movements toward Transforming the Palm Oil Industry
The area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, based on the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, increased from 14,9 million hectares in 2022 to 16,38 million hectares in 2023. Meanwhile, according to Sawit Watch, based on the given licenses the area of oil palm...
Creeping in Silence: Summer Postcard with Love
It has been six months since we distributed the postcard at the International Just Transition Conference in November 2023, now this postcard is ready to be delivered to you through this website. These postcards will bring you to TPOLS research findings on safety and...
Beyond Health and Safety: The Struggle of the Alienated Body and the Emergence of New Forms of Worker Organization on Palm Oil Plantation
Since the colonial era, health has been an integral part of labor control, as seen on palm oil plantations. Today, these agri-capitalist factories, operating in multinational contexts, continue to benefit from this mechanism of control, degrading workers’ bodies...
Beyond the Red Circle: Notes on a Palm Oil Plantation Union Meeting in Indonesia
In September last year, I attended a group discussion with workers organised by a branch of SERBUK (People’s Labour Union) at a palm oil plantation company in the Sambas Regency of West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. It was the first gathering of union members...