Workers at Lujeri Tea Estate have reported sexual abuse by their supervisors, who are accused of 31 different claims of sexual assault and harassment including ten cases of rape.
The above follows after a 2016 Oxfam report outlined sexual exploitation in Malawian Estates, as the workers are suing PGI (owner of the estates) claiming that their wages were docked and contracts were not renewed after managers’ sexual advances were refused. The law suit names 36 alleged perpetrators who are “a systemic problem of male workers at plantations abusing their positions of power” to rape, sexually assault, harass and coerce women they supervise into sex.
“Since learning of these allegations, we have been kept fully informed of the investigation, review and actions that the management team at Lujeri immediately undertook.” said PGI management.
According to thesun.co.uk, which interviewed one of the workers, companies have stopped using Lujeri to supply their own brand teas, namely Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Co-op and Sainsbury’s.