The palm oil industry is the largest foreign exchange earner in Indonesia. However, there are reports from several parties that the operational activities of oil palm plantation companies have violated various labor regulations. One of the groups reported to have been subjected to these violations is harvesters, a crucial component in the palm oil industry. Currently, several companies are accused of employing child labor and unregistered workers. Child labor is the employment of workers who are under the age of 18 years, while unregistered workers do not have direct employment ties/contracts with the company, causing them to not receive job security, minimum wage, and access to benefits.
Various sources state that one of the causes of this practice is the high workload and targets set by the company, causing harvesters to bring their wife and children to help them complete their work. Sawit Watch stated that harvesters do at least six other types of work apart from harvesting FFB. Oppuk also added that harvesters have a target of 1.2 tons to 2 tons per person per day, which is unlikely to be achieved alone.
Based on these problems, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) collaborated with the Consortium Studies on Smallholder Palm Oil (CSSPO) to conduct a study on “Workload Standards and Work Targets for Oil Palm Harvesters.” The Consortium Coordinator (Diana Chalil) and the Board of Directors of GAR held discussions in Jakarta on 16 July 2018.
