THE NEWSLETTER FROM THE ETHICAL PARTNERSHIP FOR TEA PRODUCERS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS TalkingTea

November 2005 Monitoring begins in South America The Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) takes from which our members buy tea,” says another big step forward with the launch of Partnership Chairman Katy Tubb. “To date its monitoring programme in South we’ve monitored over half of the estates on America. An engagement programme with our Approved Supplier List in seven tea the tea trade in Argentina and Brazil began producing regions.” at the beginning of November along with Gavin Bailey - the distribution of questionnaires to selling Do ethical issues matter to consumers? ETP’s New Executive Director marks who supply Partnership members. Yes! In many countries they are very Monitoring begins in these two countries in important, which is why Ethical Tea Dr Gavin Bailey joined the Partnership February 2006. Partnership members need to be able to in May 2005 following Chris Pinfold’s demonstrate that the tea they sell is retirement. As ETP’s Executive The next stage will be to monitor in responsibly produced. Spending on Director, Gavin is responsible for the and South , which will begin in mid ethically sound foods in the UK increased monitoring programme and the 2006. “We’re keen to cover the whole of to £1.75 billion in 2003 against £1 billion in development and expansion of the our members’ supply base as soon as 2000. 80% of those surveyed said the initiative. possible and the objective is that by 2008 choice of which groceries they buy is Gavin is new to the tea industry: he’s monitoring will have started in all countries affected by ethical issues (Source: Grocer Magazine UK, April 2004). been involved in policy and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) The Partnership is already programmes for two of the UK’s major recognised as being highly retailers, Sainsbury’s and Safeway. He successful and in the long also helped to set up and run several term we hope that it will international monitoring and assurance become the one ethical schemes for good agricultural practice sourcing initiative used including the UK’s Assured Produce throughout the tea industry. Scheme and EUREP. Membership is currently “For me, it’s clear that our degree of open to any tea packing success will depend on how we work company selling tea into together with producers to find creative , North America, and practical ways to solve problems and . that may initially appear insoluble and perhaps politically too hot to handle,” he says. “Debate is an important part Stop Press… Stop Press… Stop Press… of this and we want to use this newsletter, which will appear every six months, as one forum for exchanging Tazo joins ETP views and airing opinions. The Ethical We are delighted to welcome Tazo (www.tazo.com) as a Tea Partnership is a constantly member. The Tazo brand, which includes 21 flavours of filterbags, 15 flavours of ready to evolving initiative and we want our drink , four flavours of tea lattes including Tazo Chai, is sold in the US and in Canada. stakeholders, particularly tea Limited offerings of Tazo products are sold in Starbucks stores throughout Asia, Europe, producers, to tell us where we can Central and South America and Australia. The Ethical Tea Partnership now has improve so that we can make this a 18 members (see below) covering over 50 brands of tea sold in over 30 countries. real partnership.” A Monitoring Visit Close-Up Charles Wambua, an experienced monitor with the Kenyan PricewaterhouseCoopers monitoring team, walks us through an initial monitoring visit.

“In PricewaterhouseCoopers has a documents, payroll information and team of 16, some of whom have worked on employee records on the day so we give a ETP monitoring for the last three years. list of the records we need to see and ask While not everyone has a background in for confirmation that these will be available. tea, over this time we’ve carried out a large We also ask the estate to complete a short number of monitoring visits and built up profile so we have a general understanding considerable experience of the tea industry, of its scale. how tea estates work and the issues they face.” We also explain that we will need to talk to staff including management, payroll clerks, Kenyan monitors Dennis Njagi and a colleague check records The Partnership’s social monitoring process employees and Trade Union Officials and to on an estate. Dennis has just won PricewaterhouseCoopers’ entails visits to individual tea estates’ see every part of the tea estate and factory, Monitor of the Year Award 2004-5. selling marks to make sure that producers including the accommodation areas, formal comments which are also comply with the respective national legal sanitary facilities, tea fields, medical documented. All this information is framework and other legally binding local centres and school. included in the monitoring report which is agreements. compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers in On the day… Kenya then sent to their London office for The areas we focus on are: We start our visit with an introductory quality review prior to sending to the ETP Terms and conditions of employment meeting with management. This gives us in London. Education, focusing on the individual’s another opportunity to explain what ETP is right to education about and why it’s important to take part. ETP will review the report, grade it and We cover what we’ll be doing, the things Maternity provisions send a copy of the final report with the we need to see and the people we need to grade to the estate. A time frame for any Health and safety talk to. We also explain in more detail ETP’s remedial actions needed will also be Housing graded certification. included.” Basic rights, which include freedom of association, employment freely chosen Then we begin to gather evidence, through and no harsh and inhumane treatment a combination of observation, interviewing skills and checking of records. We interview Your feedback It’s not all checking: the monitoring process the tea estate/factory manager, tour the also seeks to identify aspects of good factory facilities and the other parts of the is important management practice, recognising estate and interview employees and the Trade Union representatives. We look at the After a monitoring visit the producers who have moved beyond the Partnership sends each estate a short basic legal requirements in areas such as estate’s documentation e.g. payroll, water environmental conservation, education, certification etc. Monitoring Visit Evaluation Form. This provision of health care and local is your opportunity to tell us what you community engagement. At the end of the visit, we prepare close out thought of the process and the minutes and report back to estate management. This meeting gives us the monitors’ approach. This information Each monitoring visit in Kenya is carried is used by PricewaterhouseCoopers out by two trained and experienced chance to discuss any non-compliances PricewaterhouseCoopers monitors, one of we’ve found and also any aspects of good and ETP to continuously improve our whom is usually female. The length of the practice. It’s a two-way process and gives monitoring process. visit varies depending on the size of the us the opportunity to get management’s estate: an initial visit lasts two days, a follow up visit takes a day. If we’re doing a follow up visit, we try to make sure that at least one member of the original monitoring team is involved. Spreading the word Before the visit We try to do as much advance planning as Feedback from tea producers has We’ve been considering how best to meet possible to make sure the visit runs indicated that they feel there is a need this need and have decided to appoint our smoothly and on time. We go through the for better communication and a closer first in-country representative based in questionnaire the estate has completed for relationship with the Ethical Tea Kenya. “The aim will be to build strong ETP so that we are familiar with the Partnership. There are sometimes relationships with key partners and information already given. A month before questions that need to be answered and stakeholders, both inside and outside the the visit we send the estate a pack of issues to be resolved and it’s hard to do tea trade,” says Gavin Bailey. “We want to information which explains the process this when the Partnership is a long build a spirit of openness with tea we’ll be going through. It’s very important way away. producers and a real willingness to work that we are able to access all the relevant Graded You ask…we answer… ETP is an evolving initiative and we know provide hygienic toilet facilities in a location it’s not perfect. Your feedback and that is convenient to the workforce. Certification comments can help us to refine and improve. Below are some of the issues that In terms of applying a grade, we would ETP introduced graded have already been raised and we look categorise the non-availability of forward to receiving more of your permanently built toilets in tea fields as a certification to reflect the questions via our dedicated email address minor non-conformance, so it does not fact that each estate is at a for tea producers: adversely affect the overall grade an estate different stage of [email protected] is given to a great degree. development. Grading also “ETP requires us to make provisions for Remember that ETP cannot become employees beyond those specified by involved in trying to get laws changed. If allows us to acknowledge local law and union agreements. For tea producers feel the law is unrealistic improvements estates make. example, in our country, the law states then they should lobby their Tea Board or only that toilets in the fields need to be Tea Association with a view to having the The grade is arrived at after a careful provided, but ETP requires us to provide law modified to meet current practice. process which involves weighing up the separate facilities for men and women. non-conformances identified in the Why is this?” When monitors visited our estate they met monitoring visit, which are divided into staff and workers without a member of critical, major and minor. The grade is given ETP does not ask producers to make our Management being present. We had by ETP itself and we are scrupulously provisions beyond those specified by local no way of knowing what kind of feedback careful about how we do it. laws and union agreements. The only you had and whether you were getting possible exception is when a Collective misleading information about conditions What influences the grade most? Critical Bargaining Agreement has been agreed on our estate. Is this right? non-conformances carry the most weight with the union and the employer but offers and even just one can be enough to pull less protection than the law. For the ETP scheme to be credible it’s down an estate’s grade quite substantially. important that our monitors are able to One example of this is the need for workers The need for toilets or latrines in the tea interview estate workers and trade union to be issued with protective clothing. If this fields is an issue in several countries. In representatives in confidence. That doesn’t is a legal requirement and our monitors find most, the law is usually quite specific about mean to say we would accept allegations evidence it is not being respected, it will be the quantity and type of toilets that need to at face value. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ classed as a critical non-conformance. In be provided. In Kenya, for example, the law monitors are trained to differentiate the case of one estate this was enough to sets out a minimum number of latrines to between one off instances or false reduce the estate’s grade from an A to a D be agreed with a medical or labour officer. In allegations and genuine non-conformances. (no certificate). Malawi, there are specific situations in which They will always look for supporting toilets for both sexes must be provided. evidence from multiple sources, using Is this fair? We think it is. If the law requires trained observation techniques, interviews protective clothing, then estates must Interpreting law is often difficult and to with other workers or document reviews supply it. We appreciate we are asking tea make a judgement we draw on the before they draw firm conclusions. If producers to invest further in their expertise of our in-country labour lawyer. sufficient evidence is not found then the businesses and we know this is sometimes Where it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to finding will be reported to the ETP as an a financial burden. One of our objectives is comply with the letter of the law, ETP tries observation rather than a non-conformance. to seek improvement where it is needed to suggest a sensible solution. In the case Any serious allegations and any and we are looking at how we can facilitate of toilets in tea fields, we have suggested observations are always reported to grading improvements. the use of mobile toilet facilities, which management in the close out meeting in a although these do not meet the letter of the way which will not allow the workers who General information about grading is on our law in terms of construction etc, they do made them to be identified. website. Let us know if you would like a specific issue explained in more detail.

together. Our representative will be working with tea estates, producers at head office levels, local tea boards and tea trade associations to inform and communicate on what we do and the progress we are making and to get feedback on how to improve the initiative. We also want to facilitate local stakeholder debate on topical issues. The Kenyan post will be a pilot and if it works well we will eventually recruit representatives in other major tea producing regions.” Smallholders: Talking to our consumers new ethical Consumers want to be reassured that the producers, one for the general public, and tea they buy is produced in a socially one for retailers, caterers and wholesalers. responsible way. The Ethical Tea All can be seen and downloaded from guidelines Partnership is committed to building our website. consumer understanding about the ethical sourcing of tea and the considerable efforts If you haven’t done so already, do check launched producers are making. out the website. As well as the leaflets you’ll find lots of information for tea To help us do this many members’ tea producers. We now have a low graphics packs are now starting to carry an on pack version of the site to help people on low statement about the Partnership. “The aim speed telephone lines. There is a dedicated is to tell people about the Partnership and email address for producers to contact us: to help those who are interested find out [email protected] more by directing them to our website, www.ethicalteapartnership.org,” says Gavin Bailey. The statement can already been seen on pack in a number of languages including English, French, Polish and Russian. Smallholders play a key part in the tea supply chain in many countries but they are not covered by the Ethical Tea Partnership initiative. Over the last two years we have been working with other members of the UK’s Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) to As well as on pack information, ETP understand the issues and help devise members will also be able to talk about the guidelines that allow smallholders to Partnership and their membership of it, on engage with social standards. These certain kinds of marketing material. guidelines have now been published (see www.ethicaltrade.org, the ETI website) and ETP has produced its own range of leaflets we are looking at how we can develop to explain the initiative: one for tea them into a practical tool. The Questionnaire- How are we doing? essential first Our rolling monitoring programme continues: by September 2005, in our first seven countries, we had monitored 625 selling marks: 169 in North India (Assam), 34 in , step 95 in Kenya, 31 in Malawi, 269 in , 17 in Tanzania and 10 in Zimbabwe. Completing the Partnership’s Questionnaire is the first stage of the monitoring process. Selling Marks monitored to date by If you don’t do this, we can’t monitor your the Ethical Tea Partnership selling marks and you risk being removed from our Approved Supplier List.

NORTH INDIA You may have wondered how we make (Assam) sure the section containing laws and union 169 selling marks monitored agreements is complete and accurate. “For every country in which we operate, we CHINA employ an experienced firm of labour KENYA Start Jul 06 lawyers to identify the relevant legislation 95 selling marks SOUTH INDIA monitored Start Jun 06 and union agreements. We also use the INDONESIA BRAZIL 34 selling marks expertise of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ in- Start Feb 06 monitored country teams,” explains ETP Project Manager Jacqueline Brown. “New laws or agreements are incorporated as they come ARGENTINA TANZANIA SRI LANKA out. If any areas are unclear, we get an Start Feb 06 17 selling marks 269 selling marks monitored monitored opinion from an in-country legal expert. Once the questionnaire is agreed ZIMBABWE MALAWI Selling marks are 10 selling marks 31 selling marks those supplying PricewaterhouseCoopers use it to train monitored monitored members of the ETP. their monitoring teams and conduct pilot A selling mark is the name under which an estate sells its tea. monitoring visits.” An estate may have more than one selling mark. Contact us at Ethical Tea Partnership PO Box 2287, Caterham CR3 0ZW United Kingdom Tel/Fax: +44 (0)20 8645 0333 Email: [email protected] www.ethicalteapartnership.org