BAT campaigns
against child labour in Brazil
Rio de Janeiro,
31 May 2000 - Thousands
of rural families have joined a programme to combat child labour run by Souza
Cruz S.A., the Brazilian subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT) www.bat.com.
The company aims by August
to reach 42,000 small farmers who are tobacco leaf growers in the states of
Rio Grande do Sul, Parana and Santa Catherina.
Local Souza Cruz managers
and technicians are helping to spread the message that young children should
be in school, not working in the fields.
The programme, The Future
is Now, seeks to ensure that children under the age of 16 receive a proper
education. It helps farmers to keep their children in school, supports rural
schools, and runs an awareness campaign against child labour.
Souza Cruz operates in regions
of southern Brazil where family labour is a traditional part of life on small
holdings, many of them contracted to the BAT subsidiary.
Letitia Sampaio, Manager
for Corporate Social Responsibility, says: "The emphasis is on gentle persuasion.
We point out that to allow under-age children to work in the fields is against
the law.
Mrs Sampaio, mother of two
teenage children, adds: "We are looking for a change in the traditional
way of doing things. Many of the small farming families think it is a good thing
for their children to work and we have to show them that the children will have
a better future if they are educated."
The programme has three
stages - first, explaining the law and why children should get proper schooling,
then a signed agreement and finally by 2003, incorporation of an undertaking
not to use child labour in contracts with BAT. "We shall be saying that
if they do not comply we will not buy from them," says Mrs Sampaio.
With the support of Souza Cruz, an unprecedented agreement was signed in 1998
between the Brazilian Union of Tobacco Industries (Sindifumo) and the Association
of Brazilian Tobacco Growers (Afubra), aimed at keeping children in schools.
In a statement on its child
labour policy, BAT says that it does not employ children in any of its industrial
operations. "We also seek to apply this commitment throughout the supply
chain, from leaf growing and the provision of materials, to the distribution
and sales of manufactured cigarettes, and to the recovery and disposal of waste
materials."
The
Global Compact
British
American Tobacco (www.bat.com)