What can the tea sector learn about sustainability from garments?

Responding to violence and harassment is essential but what needs to change so that women are safe at work in the first place?

For tea, this means looking at whether workers can raise concerns without fear, whether complaints lead to action and whether women have a say in the decisions that affect them.

The Dindigul Agreement gives us a practical example to learn from. It also opens up a wider conversation about how employers, unions and brands can help prevent harm. Drawing on her current work, Krishanti and Divya will discuss how we can better understand and measure women’s safety at work as well as the systems needed to address abuse.

Join us to explore:

• Lessons from the Dindigul Agreement what worked, what proved difficult and what tea could learn.
• The role of women-led unions how organising and working with management can help workers speak up and secure change.
• Making complaints processes work what workers need to report harm safely and have confidence that action will follow.
• Preventing violence and harassment how to build safety into everyday working life as well as responding when things go wrong.
• Why safety matters across a business the relationship between workers’ safety, wellbeing and productivity.

This webinar will give your organisation practical insights from the Dindigul Agreement and the experience of those directly involved in putting it into practice. You’ll hear what has helped make workplaces safer for women, how different organisations have worked together to tackle gender-based violence and harassment and where challenges remain. The discussion will also look at what the tea sector could learn from this approach and how those lessons might be adapted to different working environments.

Krishanti Dharmaraj is founder and CEO of Dignity Index Global – a human rights lab dedicated to increasing the safety of women and preventing gender-based violence. Krishanti works at the intersection of gender, labour and human rights. A founding trustee of THIRST, Krishanti was an Independent Chair of the Dindigul Agreement’s Oversight Committee. Her current work explores how to assess and improve the conditions that make workplaces safe for women.

Dhivya Rakini is former President of Tamil Nadu Textile and Commons Union (TTCU). Dhivya was one of the leaders behind the Dindigul Agreement and played a central role in putting it into practice, working directly with women workers and factory management to address gender-based violence and harassment. She brings first-hand experience of organising with women workers and helping to bring about change in the workplace.

Competition over collaboration
The Dindigul Agreement shows how trade unions, manufacturers, brands and labour rights organisations can work together to tackle shared problems.

Attitudes towards workers
The webinar looks at the importance of listening to women workers, respecting their rights and giving them a meaningful voice in making workplaces safer.

Deeply ingrained resistance to change
We’ll hear what it took to change established ways of working, what made progress possible and where challenges remain.