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Parliamentary question - E-001123/2019Parliamentary question
E-001123/2019

Labour and environmental laws in Ecuador

Question for written answer E-001123-19
to the Commission
Rule 130
Francisco Assis (S&D)

The Japanese company Furukawa Plantaciones C. A., which operates in Ecuador, is employing workers on its plantation with no contracts, no holiday or social security entitlements and no overtime pay, charging them a fee for the use of tools indispensable to the extremely arduous process of extracting fibre from the abaca plants. The workers live in encampments surrounded by fencing, which are kept locked up during the night and the weekend, effectively imprisoning them. Men, women and children are confined at the camps in inhuman conditions, with neither electricity nor water, earning a pittance and condemned to lives of abject poverty. To all intents and purposes, they are being treated as slaves by the company, which is seriously infringing their human rights, as well as internationally recognised labour standards now enshrined in ILO Convention 110.

The Japanese company Furukawa Plantaciones C. A., which is owned by the Tokyo TFPC Marketing Co. Ltd, is exporting some of its production to the European Union under the favourable terms of the EU-Ecuador trade agreement.

Given that Title IX of this agreement includes a clause regarding compliance with labour and environmental laws, when will the EU enforce this provision by making an example of Furukawa Plantations C. A.?

Last updated: 12 March 2019
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