Angry TATA Global Beverages instructs lawyers over Tetley tea allegations

The newspaper’s hard-hitting short video documentary ‘Assam’s Modern Slaves The Real Price of Tetley Tea’ documents conditions at an Assam tea plantation owned by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), within which both TATA and the World Bank’s investment arm (IFC) hold shares.

Journalist Gethin Chamberlain states that tea pickers at the Narahani plantation who live on the estate (many of whom are female) are paid as little as 91p (around $1.50) per day for a six day week, just over half of the basic minimum wage in India.

He claims that the plantation supplies global brands including Tetley, a point that a furious TATA Global Beverages strenuously denies.

“This is a story about how modern slavery works, and about how the price you pay for your cherished tea [here we cut to a shot of Tetley teabags] drives an ancient trade that many assume has been consigned to history,” Chamberlain states…

Read the full article here.