Posted on 30 -6-2004

Sweet and Sour
by Jim Lobe, Special to CorpWatch, June 23rd, 2004,

Coca-Cola is indirectly benefiting from the use of child labor in
sugarcane fields in El Salvador, according to a new report by Human Rights
Watch (HRW), which is calling on the company to take more responsibility
to ensure that such abuses are halted.

Between 5,000 and 30,000 Salvadoran children, some as young as 8 years
old, are working in El Salvador's sugarcane plantations where injuries,
particularly severe cuts and gashes, are common, according to the 139-page
report, 'Turning a Blind Eye: Hazardous Labor in El Salvador's Sugarcane
Cultivation.'

Since the 1950s, sugar production has grown in importance in El Salvador
since the 1950s, and by 1971 it exceeded the production of basic grains.
By the 1990s, sugar, which was produced mainly by state-owned plantations,
had become El Salvador's second-largest export crop after coffee.
Beginning in 1995, most of the plantations were privatized.

While Coca-Cola does not own or buy cane directly from any of these
plantations, its local bottler buys sugar from El Salvador's largest
refinery, Central Izalco, and distributes the soft drink throughout
Central America. HRW found that Izalco purchased sugarcane from at least
four plantations that use child labor in violation of the law.

Coca-Cola denied any connection with child labor in El Salvador. "Our
review has revealed that none of the four cooperatives identified by HRW
supplied any products directly to the Coca-Cola Company, and that neither
the Company nor the Salvadoran bottler have any commercial contracts with
these farm cooperatives," Coca-Cola officials said in a statement released
in response to the report. The company publicly opposes the use of child
labor, and its "Supplier Guiding Principles" program provides that its
direct suppliers "will not use child labor as defined by local law."

Michael Bochenek, counsel to HRW's Children's Rights Division, believes
the company should take more responsibility. "Coke is saying that it has
no responsibility to look beyond their direct suppliers, and we disagree,"
he said. "If Coca-Cola is serious about avoiding complicity in the use of
hazardous child labor, the company should recognize its responsibility to
ensure that respect for human rights extend down the supply chain."

Under Salvadoran law, 18 is the minimum age for dangerous work, and many
consider work on the sugar fields to be one of the most dangerous jobs in
agriculture. (Age 14 is the minimum for most other kinds of work in El
Salvador.) But the relevant provisions are not generally enforced, in part
because the children are hired as "helpers" and are therefore not afforded
the same protections as employees.

Children hired as helpers often must pay for their own medical treatment
if they are injured in the fields, despite a provision in the labor code
that makes employers responsible for medical expenses for injuries
incurred on the job.

"Child labor is rampant on El Salvador's sugarcane plantations," said
Bochenek, lead author of the HRW report, which was based on interviews
conducted early last year with 32 children and youths between the ages of
12 and 22, as well as with parents, teachers, activists, academics,
lawyers, government officials, and representatives of the Salvadoran Sugar
Association. "Companies that buy or use Salvadoran sugar should realize
that fact and take responsibility for doing something about it."

Cutting sugar cane is back-breaking and hazardous work for a variety of
reasons. The most common tools are machetes and knives. Both the monotony
of the work and the fact that it is usually performed under direct
sunlight make for frequent accidents, even among experienced workers.

Virtually all of the children interviewed by HRW bore multiple scars from
cuts they received during their work. ''I cut myself on the leg,” one
13-year-old boy told an HRW interviewer as he displayed a scar on his left
shin. “There was a lot of blood. I got stitches at the clinic.” His
mother added that the incident occurred when he was 12.

Because cane is often burned before it is cut to clear away the leaves,
workers may suffer smoke inhalation and burns on their feet. As one former
labor inspector told HRW, "Sugarcane has the most risks. It's indisputable
- sugarcane is the most dangerous (agricultural work)."

Although not as hazardous, planting sugar cane—work that in El Salvador is
mostly performed by women and girls—is also difficult and exhausting.
Working under the hot sun, planters must keep up with tractors that plough
rows for the cane.

Children who work on sugarcane plantations, particularly during the
harvest, are often required to miss the first several months of school
each year, while older children often drop out of school entirely.

HRW recommends that Coca-Cola and other businesses buying Salvadoran sugar
require their suppliers to incorporate international child-labor standards
in their contracts with the plantations and adopt effective monitoring
systems to verify that compliance.

But it should not be a matter of simply firing child workers, particularly
when their families have come to depend on the extra income their children
bring home, according to Bochenek. ''What is really needed to ensure that
child labor is addressed in a comprehensive way is one that combines
educational incentives and other safety nets," he said. "It's fine to have
a carrot-and-stick approach if the stick is the last resort." He cited
programs in Mexico and Brazil that provide cash grants to parents for
enrolling their children in schools instead of sending them to work.

The sugar industry association in El Salvador has begun to work with the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) on a more comprehensive approach
to the problem of child labor, which HRW sees as potentially helpful.

In its reaction to the HRW report, Coca-Cola officials also noted that the
sugar industry has been meeting with cooperatives to emphasize its "zero
tolerance" for child labor. The company promised to step up its own
monitoring and enforcement activities and to "continue to help provide
increased educational opportunities for children from the farm
cooperatives."

Company officials added that they will "work with our direct supplier to
help (it) strengthen (its) outreach programs (and) will also work with the
sugar industry association as they continue to implement a major program
with the ILO to help families involved in Salvadoran sugarcane
cultivation."

"That's awfully short on specifics," said Bochenek, who called for the
company to make concrete commitments to finance and support educational
and related programs and to assume greater responsibility for their
success.

"Where you have had a company that used sugar, which it knows is produced
by child labor, it can support these programs by contributing financially
and in terms of technical assistance in concrete ways, as opposed to just
saying the right thing," he said.

The new report marks the latest in a growing number of efforts by
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to press multinational corporations
to take more responsibility for labor conditions under which their
products, or components of their products, are produced.

Under pressure from NGOs, for example, major chocolate manufacturers
agreed last year to take part in a program to monitor West African cocoa
plantations to ensure their compliance with minimum international child
labor standards. Initially, the chocolate manufacturers insisted that they
bore no responsibility for abusive practices because they bought beans
from commodity brokers, not from the farmers themselves. But as NGOs
increased pressure, the chocolate manufacturers agreed to participate in
the monitoring program.