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28
Mar 2021
Bettys and Taylors to keep using tea supplier accused of sexual abuse
Harrogate company Bettys and Taylors has said it will continue trading with a supplier in Malawi that is being sued over the alleged sexual abuse of workers.
A Sunday Times article today revealed a group of tea pickers, many of them single mothers earning about £1 a day, have filed a claim in the High Court against Lujeri Tea Estates and its British owners. PGI Group.
The lawsuit alleges there is a 'systematic problem of male workers at plantations abusing their positions of power' to rape, sexually assault, harass and coerce women they supervise into sex.
It names 36 alleged male perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, which produces Yorkshire Tea, is one of several British companies named in the article for being supplied by Lujeri.
Unilever, whose tea brands include PG Tips and Lipton, and Tetley, are also named.
Bettys and Taylors published an 850-word statement on its website today saying 'human rights abuses have no place in our supply chain'.
But it added at this stage it did not plan to cut ties with its suppliers in Malawi:
The statement added Bettys and Taylors' suppliers were "engaging fully and openly with this process".
Grant Bramsen, managing director of Lujeri Tea Estates, told the Sunday Times it was "deeply troubled by these allegations" and processes it had introduced to prevent abuse "did not go far enough".
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