Good practices

Introduce or strengthen the policy on sexual harassment policy 

Good social dialogue can lead to improved staff retention, reduced occupational safety risks and more efficient monitoring and improvement of company policies.

Train worker committee members on negotiation skills, labour rights, labour law and company policies.

Empower women to take an active role in representation bodies with trainings in leadership.

Grant employees time and resources to be informed about the committee activities, elections and meetings.

Support career progression
for women

Introduce professional training to increase women’s internal mobility.

Implement a female leadership policy and training in the company

Keep gender-disaggregated data on wages and positions.

Monitor and eliminate wage differences between male and female employees.

Provide on-site childcare or improve the existing childcare service

Access to improved childcare facilities gives employees with children the freedom to choose for more overtime hours in busy periods.

Beds, playgrounds, hygienic standards, access to healthcare and facilities to warm up or preserve food are important for parents to feel comfortable at work.

Professional care givers can be hired to guarantee modern and efficient day-care service for children of workers.

Provide access at a subsidised cost to let employees with children work with peace of mind.

Introduce or strengthen the gender committee

A gender committee can make women workers voices heard and their needs addressed. This is necessary to guarantee that employments benefits male and female employees equally.

Involve the gender committee in the monitoring of the harassment policy and in an effective grievance mechanism

Make sure that the side benefits of employment benefit women as much as men.

Offer training to gender committee members on their role, leadership skills, communication skills and how to efficiently handle harassment cases.

Monitor the attendance of gender committee meetings and remove obstacles for members to participate, for example making sure that they have enough time to participate.

Making change

There are various organisations that will help achieve these goals. Some examples include Workers Rights Watch, Haki Mashinani and FEMNET.

Include in the H&S policy pesticide exposure times, training, personal protective equipment and continuous improvement 

Train all workers on health and safety policy and procedures regularly, including temporary ones. It is a way to reduce absenteeism and staff turnover.

Improvements in health and safety training can lead to a fall in routine injuries, saving workforce and management time, as well as the costs of providing first aid treatment and medication.

Make protective equipment available in good conditions to all workers, not only pesticide sprayers.

Introduce monitoring and reporting guidelines and procedures to investigate accidents and identify potential improvements and prevention.

Look for the latest integrated pest management (IPM) solutions

IPM can reduce or eliminate the need for pesticides.

Lower or more rational pesticide use will in most cases reduce costs and increase yields and quality, while creating a safer environment for your workers.

Several providers of IPM products operate in Kenya. Most of them provide free consults to identify tailored solutions based on your needs.

Pesticide-related health issues have been shown to affect all workers in contact with crops, not only sprayers. Reducing pesticide use will improve health and productivity throughout the workforce.

Make better use of existing health facilities

Implement preventative care and education programs, including reproductive health education. This will reduce health-related absenteeism and protect productivity.

Bring healthcare facilities up to standard in terms of safety, cleanliness, equipment but also opening hours, privacy and information.

Make sure procedures and record keeping are optimised for maximising the benefits to patients.

Monitor and review the state of healthcare facilities regularly.

Enter dialogue with the worker committee to uncover ways to contribute to employees’ household income at a low cost

Providing meals can increase productivity for the most physically demanding jobs.

Housing allowances can significantly help employees make ends meet.

Complimentary transportation can not only help financially but also have a positive impact on harassment of women workers on their way to/from work.

Employees may be interested in cultivating vegetables or rearing chicken on unused company land. This can increase food security at a low cost.

Offer security on the long term by providing fixed contracts

Offer fixed contracts to all employees to allow them to plan ahead and benefit from more stability.

Reduce insecurity by providing trainings on financial knowledge and literacy skills

Give basic and financial literacy training to help workers to make more informed financial choices. Training can lead for example to reduced household costs and increased saving rates.

Peer to peer training has been shown to have high effectiveness, as well as a lower cost.

By improving the employer’s image and food security, literacy and financial trainings can relate to increased productivity and decreased staff turnover.

Monitor wages and living costs together with trade unions, make steps towards paying a living wage

Keep data on wages and benefits and monitor them in the context of living wage benchmark studies.

Monitor the change in costs of living regularly to keep track of the wage gap.

Increase employee remuneration to reduce the living wage gap as much as possible.

A fast-growing number of living wages initiatives shows an emerging trend in global supply chains. There are clear opportunities for pioneering growers that decide to explore the trajectory towards a living wage.

Establish a good relationship with trade unions

Allow union staff to promptly access the company grounds

Allow employees time and facilities to meet with union representatives

Draft and sign a recognition agreement with national labour unions

 
Sign a collective bargaining agreement with recognized labour union

Adopt a company policy on freedom of association and procedures to make it known and respected by all staff.

Make the policy visible in the workplace and include it in staff trainings.

Make the policy applicable to all workers, including temporary and subcontracted ones.

Ensure compliance by introducing a functioning grievance mechanism, monitoring, continuous improvement procedures and clear responsibilities in the management for its implementation.

Append the policy to employment contracts and contracts with subcontractors. Some clients may also request it as part of due diligence.

Institute or strengthen the internal workers committee

Good social dialogue can lead to improved staff retention, reduced occupational safety risks and more efficient monitoring and improvement of company policies.

Train worker committee members on negotiation skills, labour rights, labour law and company policies.

Empower women to take an active role in representation bodies with trainings in leadership.

Grant employees time and resources to be informed about the committee activities, elections and meetings.

Minimize the reliance on boreholes, rivers and lakes

Collect and store rainwater and flood water.

Reduce scarcity risks during droughts for both the farm and local communities.

Switch to water-efficient hydroponics systems 

Hydroponic systems use water and a substrate instead of soil. They allow fine tuning of nutrient availability and recovery of drainage water.

Reduced water use, lower fertilizer use and costs are key benefits of hydroponics.

Increased yields and stem length have been demonstrated in testing plots.

Automate climate control for efficient production

Water content of soil can be monitored by sensors, to optimise water use, increasing yields but also saving water and agrochemicals.

Shade screens can be automated to protect crops in the hottest hours of the day, thus reducing plant stress and evapotranspiration.

Water monitors are also available for small-scale growers.

Reuse water with cleaning technologies such as ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis

The filtration of wastewater and its reuse for production can drastically reduce water demands and recover nutrients.

Ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis are leading technologies for water purification in greenhouses.