MONROVIA (Liberia): With his ragged child’s overalls and four foot frame, 11-year-old Zachariah does not look like a typical plantation labourer. But every morning he is not in school, the Liberian child gets up at dawn to help his father work on the rubber plantation so their family of eight can afford one meal a day.

“He doesn’t want to go into the bush, but if he doesn’t come I can’t do my job,” said his father Alysious. “Sometimes my wife will come too, but then it is hard to care for the other children.”

Alysious’ shoulders bear dark calluses from carrying heavy buckets of latex, the milky tree sap used to make rubber.

Like all the workers on a foreign tyre maker’s plantation, Alysious must tap latex from 600 to 900 trees per day and prepare an equal number for the next day’s harvest.

Even if they work from dawn until after dark, workers say they do not have enough time to complete the task and are forced either to employ someone or use their wives and children as unpaid labour.

The International Labor Rights Fund, a non-profit group promoting fair working practices, filed a lawsuit against the foreign company in California this month alleging that poor conditions and pay on the plantation amounted to virtual slavery — allegations the company denies.

“The plantation workers are stripped of rights, they are isolated, they are at the mercy of the company for everything from food to lodging,” the lawsuit said.

“They risk expulsion and certain starvation if they raise even minor complaints, and the company makes wilful use of this situation to exploit these workers.”

An official of the company has described the allegations as outrageous.

“This is a country coming out of 15 years of civil war, with an unemployment rate of 85 per cent,” he said, adding that the company refused to hire minors.—Reuters