Tea workers in Kenya have filed a case against multi-national company Unilever in the UK’s Supreme Court for allegedly failing to protect them during the violence that followed the 2007 elections in which more than one thousand people were killed.
They say Unilever failed to respect its own human rights policy during the attacks.
Court documents show seven Unilever workers were killed and 56 women were raped in the ethnic violence.
In a letter to Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, the workers say local management put workers at risk by ignoring death threats reported by employees, including those from co-workers.
Many employees, who came from other areas of the country, fled the tea plantation in Western Kenya for six months, during which time they claim Unilever stopped their salaries.
