What’s the link between household brands Head & Shoulders, Covergirl, and Gillette?

The brands’ parent company, Procter & Gamble (P&G), purchases conflict palm oil from the world’s largest palm oil plantation operator, Malaysian company Felda Global Ventures (Felda). Felda deals in the human trafficking of its plantation workers, confiscating close to 30,000 passports, and still works with labor contractors and recruiters who charge enormous fees to trafficked foreign workers. 

Plantation workers are trapped in modern day slavery, all to produce palm oil that ends up in P&G products. The multinational consumer goods company is well aware of the problem, and yet still buys conflict palm oil from its joint venture partner Felda.

P&G is getting ready to publish its 2016 sustainability progress report, and the company knows that customers and investors are watching. Now’s the perfect moment to force P&G to pressure its supplier and business partner to do the right thing and stop this human catastrophe. Felda can’t afford to lose a partner like P&G.

Procter & Gamble can’t pretend to ignore the plantation workers’ ordeal. A 2015 Wall Street Journal article documented the human rights violations happening in Felda palm oil plantations. Because they’re complicit, companies like Procter & Gamble are responsible for the plight of modern slaves either working on palm oil plantations or dying on their way there. Last year, Thai and Malaysian police found nearly 150 bodies of people thought to have died in human traffickers’ camps at the border. 

Mohammad Rubel, who was smuggled into Malaysia by traffickers and was later held captive in a jungle camp, says he worked on a palm plantation for six months without receiving a salary. Muhi, another worker, says that “there is no escape,” and that Felda contractors “bring policemen and threaten to send us to jail.” In Malaysia illegally and without passports, these workers are trapped for the sake of cheap palm oil.

Over the past two years, we pushed companies like McDonald's and Starbucks coffee to adopt zero deforestation palm oil policies. We've also focused our efforts on the improvement of human and workers’ rights in the palm oil sector with campaigns targeting PepsiCo and Unilever. It’s time for Procter & Gamble to stand by its principles and save close to 30,000 palm oil workers from modern slavery.