A tea company based in Scotland has been ordered to halt legal action after trying to shut down a lawsuit filed by Kenyan workers.
More than 1,000 former and current James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) employees are suing the company for damages at Scotland’s supreme civil court over its exploitative working conditions on the Scottish-run tea farm. Workers say they suffered musculoskeletal injuries while working for the company at its farms in the Kericho region of Kenya.
James Finlay supplies Tesco and Sainsbury’s, some of the UK’s largest supermarkets. Last month the company won a temporary injunction from a court in Nairobi, blocking employees from pursuing the case. They also supply Starbucks. The judge, Lord Braid, criticized the attempt to hamper the suit, accusing the company of using “vexatious and oppressive” practices.
“We say they were issuing medication to mask the pain. [James Finlay] present this as being that they provided medical assistance. The definition that we were provided with is that those who were complaining of pain and discomfort were given painkilling medication to allow them to continue with the work they were carrying out,” Andrew Smith QC for Thompsons, who represents the Kenyan workers, said per The Herald.
He added: “And then we have workers without maternity leave, who are having to work extremely difficult circumstances ie being pregnant. All of these are relevant to the issue of how the work practices impacted upon the individuals.”
Tea-pickers alleged they were paid as little as typically got paid (just under $30) a week for up to 12 hours in a six-day week. They claim they were commonly expected to carry over 5 kilos of the cuttings and even as much as 30 kilos.
