Following a BBC Africa exposé yesterday, Finlays and Uniliver tea companies are trending on social media for the wrong reasons.
Female employees claimed that those in higher positions take advantage of them before assigning them jobs or duties.
Former and current employees are suing the companies after suffering back injuries and other health complications as a result of the difficult tasks they were forced to perform for years in exchange for 15,000 Kenyan shillings per month.
Joyce Sarenga, a Finlays employee, is one of those filing a claim for 1.5 million Kenyan shillings in damages. She began working for the company in 2001.
Five years later, she developed severe back pain and complications, which sent her to the hospital. She was not treated properly, however, and now walks with a clutch for support.
The company eventually fired her. She struggled financially for two years, until her children dropped out of school.
She was reinstated in 2021, but the manager insisted on sleeping with her in order for her to have lighter duties due to her health condition. This had a psychological impact on her.
She lives in Finlays’ worker housing, where the company deducts rent from her pay. Joyce claims that the company exploited her youth to make millions from the tea it exports to the UK, but abandoned her when she was injured.
Unfortunately, Joyce’s two daughters work at the company as well, and she claims they got the job by getting in to the advances of managers and supervisors.
She never wanted them to work there, but they never received an education during the years she was unemployed.
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