Congo plantation firm financed by UK aid accused of breaking promise to help workers | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-aid-landrights-idUSKBN1670PX
One of Africa’s largest palm oil companies that is majority-owned by the British government through foreign aid funding has failed to meet a promise to improve housing for its Congolese workers or pay them on time, investigations have revealed.
A Thomson Reuters Foundation expose in 2014 showed how development funds from European taxpayers helped rescue loss-making Canada-listed Feronia that manages about 105,000 hectares of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
But #Feronia was found to be paying some of its 3,600 staff less than the minimum wage and providing abysmal housing, prompting questions from human rights groups about using public money to fund a foreign company not helping poor laborers.
Following the investigation, Feronia hired Boston-based MASS Design Group as part of a plan to improve housing - but more than two years later little has changed for workers in one of the world’s poorest nations, campaigners said.
#RDC #terres #industrie_palmiste #exploitation ou #développement c’est selon :)