Prime Business Africa
The Guinean authorities must immediately guarantee the human rights of Soguipah workers and smallholder planters affiliated with the state-owned company, and investigate widespread abuses particularly regarding workers’ right to decent work, said Amnesty International in a new report (link to the executive summary in English).
‘Salaries that make you cry: abuses of workers’ rights linked to Soguipah’s activities in Guinea’ reveals how workers at the plantations and the factory of the Guinean Oil Palm and Rubber Tree Company (Société guinéenne de palmiers à huile et d’hévéas – Soguipah) in Diécké and its surroundings, in Nzérékoré region, were paid significantly below the national minimum wage and lacked adequate protective equipment. The report also documents how Soguipah bought rubber from smallholder planters affiliated with the company at below market prices.
“With the president promising since 2021 to make the exploitation of natural resources a lever for development and the improvement of living conditions, the authorities should act immediately to guarantee the human rights of these workers and planters, in conformity with the Guinean Labour Code, the new Constitution and their international human rights obligations,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
‘When you see some people’s payslips, it makes you want to cry…’
In 2024, the 100% state-owned Soguipah employed more than 4,000 people and had 6,801 affiliated planters, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Several Soguipah workers interviewed by Amnesty International were paid below the legal minimum wage of 550,000 Guinean franc (approximately 55 euro) per month. Among the pay slips of 30 people dated from 2022 to 2025 analysed by the organization, 29 had received a basic salary below the legal minimum wage. In September 2025, the lowest basic salary paid by Soguipah among 24 pay slips was 69,783 Guinean franc (approximately 7 euro) for 170 hours worked during the month.
“When you see some people’s payslips, it makes you want to cry… [The worker] will spend his life paying off his debts and taking on even more debt,” said one worker.
Many people interviewed struggle to meet their essential needs, including food, housing, schooling for their children and healthcare. This precarious situation is exacerbated by the Diécké area’s isolation, which causes higher prices for basic necessities, particularly during the rainy season when roads become impassable.
Workers also described difficult working conditions, with a lack of personal protective equipment despite regular exposure to potentially harmful chemicals, both on plantations and in the factory.
Amnesty International didn’t receive information from the company but in view of the continuity over time of the abuses of workers’ rights and Soguipah’s awareness of repeated claims from workers, the report concludes that the company has not effectively implemented its duty of vigilance. The Guinean authorities, for their part, failed in their obligations to ensure that these rights were respected by the company, even though they could not have been unaware of the abuses of workers’ rights.
Planters plunged into precariousness
Workers on family plantations and union representatives told Amnesty that they do not have access to the agreement and contract signed in the 1990s defining their contractual relationship with Soguipah. One of the representatives said: “I have never seen this agreement. Soguipah refuses to make it available to the communities.”
These planters are presumably obliged to sell their produce exclusively to Soguipah, often below market prices. The company also deducts sums from these sales for assistance which it no longer provides in full. A union leader said: “Before, Soguipah deducted money from us because it maintained the tracks [..] and assisted planters with agricultural techniques. This is no longer done, but Soguipah continues to deduct money from us.”
In addition, dozens of families have had their land taken away by the state for the benefit of Soguipah without fair and equitable compensation. They now depend on low-yielding monocultures that have spread at the expense of local food crops. One woman said: “Soguipah took everything, there is nowhere left to farm, so we are forced to work for Soguipah.”
Abuses widely known but ignored by the authorities
Since 2019, Soguipah workers have held protests in Diécké and in the capital Conakry over their working conditions, and the planters’ unions issued several strike notices, most recently in January 2025.
However, instead of taking the necessary measures to guarantee their rights, the authorities allowed a climate of fear and self-censorship to take hold. In 2024, a manager was allegedly dismissed for publicly denouncing the working conditions of female employees. Several people described a climate of fear fuelled by the threat of sanctions. One of them said: “If I write against Soguipah today on my Facebook page, tomorrow I will be punished. One of my friends has already been through this. He was almost sacked.”
“The transitional authorities must keep their repeated promises to protect the economic and social rights of everyone in the country, including the right to a fair and equitable wage, which is a prerequisite for a decent life,” said Fabien Offner, Senior Researcher at Amnesty International.
“They must guarantee the protection of the human rights of Soguipah workers and of those who depend on the company, in accordance with the country’s obligations under the Guinean Labour Code, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the nine fundamental instruments of the International Labour Organization ratified by Guinea.”
