• Last year, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ordered one of the world’s largest palm oil companies to make severance payments worth tens of thousands of dollars, handing palm oil workers an important victory in a labor dispute.
• Asserting the decision as a new precedent, activists and union groups are mounting a case for two new lawsuits against the company, London Sumatra, on behalf of 200 workers over unfair dismissals.
• Indonesia is the world’s top palm oil producer but allegations of labor abuses have dogged the industry.

Indonesian palm oil workers and labor rights activists are looking to press their advantage following the success of four labor rights appeal cases heard in Indonesia’s Supreme Court last year.

The appeals found PT London Sumatra (Lonsum) — a subsidiary of the palm oil giant Indofood, Indonesia’s largest food manufacturer — in breach of 10 casual employment contract terms, an outcome activists and union groups are asserting as a new precedent.

Now, the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), U.S.-based activist group, in partnership with Indonesian labor rights group OPPUK, independent palm oil union SERBUNDO and Sumatran legal aid organization LBH Palembang, are mounting a case for two new lawsuits against the company on behalf of 200 Lonsum workers in South Sumatra province over unlawful dismissals.

Labor rights appeal to Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld

In February 2020, LBH Palembang, OPPUK and SERBUNDO filed six lawsuits against Lonsum at the Medan Industrial...

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