women facing demands of sex for work... ..on tea farms owned for years by big british companies, supplying us with our favourite drink. it is shocking, given the nature of this exploitation of women, that it's been allowed to go on for so long, and that so little has been done to combat it. so many women go through this, and it was time for the general public to know what exactly happens in these companies. my name's tom odula. i am an investigative reporterfrom kenya. for the past 18 months, i've been investigating the british tea industry. some of the uk's most popular brands, including pg tips, lipton, sainsbury�*s red label come from kenya's rift valley. that's half of all tea drunk in the uk. one in ten kenyans works in the tea business. we've spoken to 100 women who pick tea on massive farms. 75 say they've suffered sexual harassment at work. ten women have agreed to be interviewed on camera, providing we don't show theirfaces. how has sexual exploitation affected you as a person? many of the women have worked on tea plantations owned by british—dutch multinational unilever. it's been the biggest tea company in the region, producing pg tips and lipton teas since the 1980s. were you forced to sleep with a manager to get the job? jeremiah koskei. he's a divisional managerfor unilever. he's worked for the company for 2h years. the women say work is scarce, and they are desperate. they are left with no choice but to give in. i want to investigate further, so i recruit an undercover reporter. we'll call her katie. she'll approachjeremiah in search of a job. what motivated you to put yourself at risk? so many women go through this, and it was time for the general public to know what exactly happens in these companies. katie calls jeremiah. he says there's no work right now. but after she drops off her cv in person, the next day he invites her to his office. katie's invited to an induction day. but she doesn't know yet if there's a job for her. jeremiah gives a speech to his new recruits. he tells them unilever has a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment. two hours after the induction, katie's back home when she gets a phone call. jeremiah tells her to meet him at a nearby hotel bar that evening. it was very uncomfortable for me, because mrjeremiah was the most senior guy, but he's still the one ringing me up, his subordinate, to go outwith. she still doesn't know for sure ifjeremiah is going to give her a job. jeremiah seems to have something other than work on his mind. jeremiah lives on the unilever tea estate he manages, jamji. as divisional manager, he has his own compound. it felt pretty transactional. even from where i sat as an undercover investigator, i felt pressured. jeremiah continues to push. if my whole life really was pegged on this opportunity, i can only imagine how that encounter would have unfolded. katie's experience with jeremiah follows a pattern other women have described. the following weekend, katie still hasn't started working on unilever�*s jamji farm. jeremiah invites himself to her home. i felt like i was now expected to be at his beck and call. immediately, he asks her to get into his car. i didn't want to be in such an enclosed and private space with him. he was getting angry with my very firm "no"s. as katie starts to walk away, jeremiah tries another approach. it was disgusting. i was not interested in this man in any way. recruiting managers have so much power over these women because working on the tea plantations is the only option for most. one in three adults here is unemployed. women who work atjamji say if you refusejeremiah�*s advances, you don't get employed. so far, katie's managed to keep jeremiah at arm's length. she still gets a job, because her application has already been sent to head office. she's assigned to the weeding team. it's one of the toughest jobs on the farm. the lady, the kind of work she's doing is the hardest labour in the plantation. every day she'll be going home with pain. katie and the other workers spend up to ten hours a day, six days a week, working the land. they're paid £25 a week. it's gruelling work, and many women ask to be moved. and inevitably, she will come and ask the supervisor for lighter duties or a different working area. and this is when he takes the opportunity to tell her she has to sleep with him. katie's supervisor is called samuel yebei. he's been with unilever for 13 years. samuel agrees to see if he can move katie to lighter duties. but within 48 hours, he makes it clear he wants something in return. he seems to think that katie now owes him. samuel continues to press katie for an invitation to her home. these leaders anticipate that you're going to approach them to ask for help. so they position themselves in such a way that if you need to make money and you can't quit yourjob, then you will need to pay in one form or another. other women supervised by samuel say katie's experience is typical. since sleeping with him, how has your life been affected? at the end of her first week working at unilever, katie still hasn't been moved to easier tasks. she sends a text message to samuel, asking to meet and discuss her move to lighter duties. in a thinly veiled sexual reference, he says only if there will be honey to lick. if he doesn't have an opportunity to lick the honey, as he put it, then there's no need of meeting. this is your direct line supervisor. katie doesn't agree. samuel meets her anyway. it's not long before samuel starts asking for something in return. i did find it dehumanising, and it clearly didn't matter to him because he's the team leader and you need him, so you just toe the line. katie refuses. samuel gives katie a final ultimatum. samuel yebei was also supervising this woman at the same time as katie. she says he made a similar proposition to her. she says accepting samuel's demands has had life—changing consequences. she says she's certain it was samuel who passed the disease on to her, and that her life has been ruined, when all she wanted was to provide for her children. five weeks later, after nearly 300 hours spent weeding, katie is still waiting for samuel to move her. do you think it's because you did not accept his demands? that's the conclusion i made. he, in the beginning, was very willing to help me out, but he went silent the moment he knew that our relationship was not going to go any further. workers from jamji say that samuel can get away with sexual harassment because of his close relationship with the divisional manager, jeremiah. using unilever�*s zero tolerance policy, katie reported her manager's predatory behaviour to one of the company's sexual harassment officers. he should investigate, but instead says it's down to katie to protect herself. he didn't give any tangible solutions, so i texted him a few days later, but he never responded to my message. no response or action was taken. he's not dealing with a bigger issue, which is women getting sexually harassed by their team leaders and managers. managers demanding sex for work on unileverfarms should have been stopped more than a decade ago. in 2011, a report by the centre for research on multinational corporations alleged sexual exploitation was rampant on unilever�*s plantations. the company's zero tolerance policy was launched in response, together with a new reporting system. yet ten years on, little appears to have changed. i'm appalled that nothing has changed, but i'd have to say that i'm not surprised. it's all too common for them to receive information about serious abuses in their workplaces and to take action, but action that's not very effective. and then you find that the abuses persist. it's completely unacceptable. unilever says it's deeply shocked and saddened by the allegations in this film... ..it�*s followed the recommendations in the 2011 report, and worked to address gender—based violence against women, upgraded the grievance handling process, increased training and improved the gender balance of team leaders. it says any criminality was reported to the police. jeremiah koskei didn't respond to our requests for comment. samuel yebei denies the allegations against him. while we were filming, unilever sold its tea brands and fields to the venture capital company cvc. it now operates as lipton teas and infusions. it says it has immediately suspended the two managers and ordered a full investigation. it's not just staff at unilever who say they suffer poor conditions and sexual harassment at work. the second—largest company operating tea plantations here is james finlay and company from scotland. in 2020, it made £52 million in revenue, supplying kenyan tea to sainsbury�*s and tesco supermarkets, as well as starbucks. more than 2,000 former employees are taking part in a class action against finlays. they are suing the company for £125 million in damages, saying they suffered serious back injuries because the company failed to protect them properly. joyce sarange is one of them. we meet at her house on the finlays plantation... ..where she lives and works. joyce says finlays took her best years, then tried to let her go when she got injured at work. with the help of her union rep, joyce was successfully reinstated as a finlays employee in 2021, but says she came up against a familiar obstacle. she says the anxiety her manager caused by demanding sex for work is even more painful than her physical injuries. as a woman working here, how likely is it to be asked for sex in return for work? it's a daily occurrence? joyce eventually reported the sexual harassment she says she suffered to finlays�* management. so no action was taken by the company? joyce has two daughters who are now themselves working on the finlays plantations. she says they, too, are experiencing the same harassment she did, but didn't feel able to resist. how did your daughters get thejobs? lawyers from the uk are representing joyce and other finlays workers in the class action. it's about giving a voice and empowering a class of people who have been treated so badly, feeling that they are helpless in the face of a very rich multinational who controls their daily lives. finlays�* code of conduct says it is committed to the fair treatment of workers and respect for individual rights. michael says when local managers fail to uphold this, leaders in the uk must take responsibility. the board ofjames finlay has responsibility over all actions of the company. each one of the directors has fiduciary duties and liabilities in relation to the conduct deployed in the name of the company. during our research into sexual abuse on the finlays plantations, one name came up more than any other. john chebochok. chebochok has been working on the finlays plantations for 30 years, first as an estate manager and now as the owner of a contracting company providing workers for its tea estates. undercover investigator katie arranges to meet him about a job. the address for her job interview turns out to be a hotel. members of the production team are keeping watch nearby, as katie arrives. chebochok tells her to follow him into one of the rooms. then he grabs katie. this is supposed to be a job interview, but katie finds herself pinned up against a window, fending him off. i needed to get tangible evidence that he wanted me to have sex with him in return for work. i was so scared and so shocked. it must be really difficult for the women who work under chebochok, because he's a sex pest. katie refuses once more. it looks like chebochok has finally got the message. katie's not going to sleep with him for a job. a week later, katie got back in touch with chebochok about thejob he'd promised, but he ignored her calls and messages before blocking her. after three months undercover, the bbc production team pulled katie out and gave her rest and counselling. james finlay and company says it immediately suspended john chebochok and barred him from its plantations. it has reported him to the police, and is now investigating whether its kenyan operation has an endemic issue with sexual violence. it's contesting the class action and has defended its health and safety record. john chebochok didn't respond to our allegations. sainsbury�*s says... tesco says it takes the "allegations extremely seriously", and is in constant dialogue with finlays to ensure robust measures are taken. starbucks didn't respond. during katie's time undercover, she met three predatory managers, who, between them, have worked on kenyan tea plantations for more than 50 years. they've held positions of authority at two leading british companies, leaving countless women, who produce the tea we love, at risk of abuse. it is shocking, given the nature of this exploitation of women, that it's been allowed to go on for so long, and that so little has been done to combat it. what would you say to the british consumers who drink the tea you pick? no—one has ever been convicted of sexual harassment or assault on the kenyan tea plantations in this film. yet my investigation has shown that the women working in this multibillion—pound industry regularly face demands of sex for work. this is bbc news. i'm lisa—marie misztak. our top stories: 0n the first anniversary of russia's invasion of ukraine — the un approves a resolution calling on moscow to withdraw its forces. as stated in ukraine's resolution, these 1111 countries reiterated a clear demand to russia. withdraw. the bbc travels to northeastern ukraine, and hears personal testimonies about the misery of war. translation: this has been the scariest year of my life. l so little joy and laughter. so much fear, pain and tears. in other news — disgraced hollywood film mogul harvey weinstein is sentenced to a futher 16 years in prison for rape — on top of the 23 year sentence he is already serving.

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