A recent report highlights the work of Banana Link and partners in Côte d’Ivoire to conclude a collective agreement on living wages for banana plantation workers by 2026.
Published by the multi-stakeholder partnership for the promotion of social dialogue and sound industrial relations, The Global Deal, it details the programme initiated in 2020 by Banana Link, that led to an historic agreement between major banana exporting companies and trade unions, to form a joint working group and negotiate a first sectoral agreement by 2026.
Supported by the African trade association AFRUIBANA, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), European retailers and the Ivorian government, the collective agreement will focus on decent working and living conditions and lead to a living wage for all banana workers.
Underlying the process is 2024 guidance from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which defined living wages as “the wage level that is necessary to afford a decent standard of living for workers and their families”, and stated that collective bargaining and social dialogue “should be the proper modality for setting and adjusting wages”.
Further impetus for the programme came from the 2024 joint commitment of retailers from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK to achieving living wages in banana supply chains, and to collaborate with producers, trade unions, and other stakeholders to close the living wage gap for workers in their banana supply chains by 2030 at the latest.
An estimated 13 500 workers are employed to produce and export bananas in Côte d’Ivoire, which is the African leader in banana exports to the EU, from the large and medium-scale plantations that make up the export sector, which are almost entirely owned by French and Belgian multinational companies.
Download the report: Promoting Living Wages for Banana Plantation Workers in Côte d’Ivoire
