CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility)

Introduction:

Unilever is the one of the fastest growing FMCG Company in the world. Currently, the firm is operating in multiple nations of the world. Sexual harassment is the universal problem and same is seen at the workplace of Unilever. In 2018 sexual harassment cases that happened at Jericho in Kenya comes in high light. The firm has developed a strategy to deal with such kind of situation. In the current report, allegation that was on the firm is discussed in detail. Apart from this, overview of the company is given in the report along with CSR activities it performed. Further, a strategy firm adopts to handle sexual harassment allegation is discussed in detail. At the end of the report conclusion and recommendation section is prepared and in this way research work is carried out.
Description of allegation
In the year 2018 allegations were made on Unilever that women’s are harassed at tea estates it holds in Keny (Breaking the silence, ending harassment, keeping women safe., 2018). Such kind sexual harassment was happening from long time but gain momentum in 2018. It was observed that male staff often uses abusive language to talk to women labor and also trying to develop an intimate relationship with them. In this way sexual harassment by women was done in Unilever Tea plantations located at Kericho in Kenya.

In many cases it was observed that by stalking, passing comments, singing songs and by stopping on the way male staff harasses women. In few cases even individual reach of women home. By making unwanted physical touch in accidental form and unwanted physical proximity at the workplace, male staff make female worker uncomfortable and harass them.
The allegation was that if any women failed to sort out quality tea from the plantation field then fewer wages paid for it. Such kind of economic pressure easily allows male workers to harass female workers at the workplace. It can be said that in lieu of better wage male workers’ request repeated sexual behavior at the workplace (Puri, Sharma and Kumar, 2016). Sometimes manager, send a body to women with mobile and forced her to talk to him. Thus, it can be said that in multiple ways women were harassed at tea plantations that are located at Kericho in Kenya.

The question arises that what were the reasons due to which male workers successfully were able to harass women in the workplace. Women worked on tea plantations are largely uneducated and not aware about the legal rights that law gives to them in the nation. These women are daily wage workers. In tea plantations that Unilever own top management is mostly run by the males. Socioeconomic conditions of women are very poor and lack of awareness put them at risk of sexual harassment (McKENZIE, 2019).

These women have very low status of their homes and family members does not care about their interests and does not give importance to their grievance and physical as well as mental health. These women are physically and mentally exploited by their husbands and have no right on their father’s property and have no control on their income (Kowalewska, 2019). Such kind of situation makes women’s labor completely powerless and create opportunity for male to harass women at workplace.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

On the basis of the above discussion, it is concluded that sexual harassment is done on a large scale in Unilever production facilities and tea fields. The firm takes appropriate steps to make sure that sexual harassment cases will be reduced in number. However, steps firm take are not sufficient and further it needs to take more decisive and tough steps like women empowerment and educating them about their rights etc. By doing so women can be made capable to fight for their own interests and retaliate if any sort of sexual harassment happened with them at the workplace.

References:

Books and Journals

Ali, S. R. O. and et.al., 2015. The effects of sexual harassment in workplace: Experience of employees in hospitality industry in Terengganu, Malaysia. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 6(4). 689.
Flammer, C. 2015. Does corporate social responsibility lead to superior financial performance? A regression discontinuity approach. Management Science. 61(11). 2549-2568.
Grayson, D.. and Hodges, A. 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.
Hopkins, M. 2016. The planetary bargain: corporate social responsibility comes of age. Springer.
Kowalewska, H., 2019. Bringing women on board: The social policy implications of gender diversity in top jobs. Journal of Social Policy. 1-19.
Loosemore, M., 2016. Social procurement in UK construction projects. International journal of project management. 34(2). 133-144.
McKENZIE, S. H. E. L. A. G. H., 2019. Sexual harassment in the workplace: a practitioner’s reflections on the current reviews in the United Kingdom post# metoo. REJIE: Revista Jurídica de Investigación e Innovación Educativa. (19). 69-85.
Puri, V., Sharma, B. C.. and Kumar, M. 2016. Voluntary Human Resource Disclosure Practices of Selected Listed Indian IT Firms. Drishtikon: A Management Journal. 7(2). 80-104.
Ram, Y. 2018. Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism. 21(7). 760-774.
Thambo, S. and et.al., 2019. Resilience in women-strategies female students employ to deal with online sexual harassment. Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa (JGIDA). 8(2). 91-117.

 

 

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