Multinational Unilever that dumped toxic waste in Kodaikanal and endangered its ex-employees on Wednesday came to an agreement to pay ex-gratia to them.

Environment activists on Wednesday described the settlement agreement Hindustan Uniliver entered into with its ex-employee as an unprecedented victory. Former workers of the thermometer manufacturing company in Kodaikanal had moved the court in 2006 against the company seeking compensation from the firm for endangering their lives.

An agreement was reached between the Hindustan Unilever and workers associations on Wednesday which was recorded in the Madras High Court. After this, the agreement was announced, sparking off celebrations among the activists who had been fighting the case for nearly 15 years.

It is pure and simple, the company bowed to public outrage and it is purely this that forced the company to climb down and not corporate social responsibility as it claimed, activists said.

The fight is not over yet. A global campaign will be underway to ensure Unilever cleans up its mercury contaminated site in Kodaikanal upto international standards, said Nityanand Jayaraman, a Chennai based environmental activist and writer.

Unilever is insisting on leaving up to 25 milligrams/kg of mercury in soil – 250 times higher than naturally occurring background levels even after clean-up.

According to activists, that is far laxer than global standards and will harm the environment. The factory is located on a ridge surrounded by the densely forested Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary.

In the United Kingdom, where Unilever is headquartered, even residential standard for mercury in soil is 1 mg/kg – 25 times stricter than what Unilever is proposing for an eco-sensitive area in India.

“With its refusal to clean up Kodaikanal as it would a site in the United Kingdom, Unilever is begging for another global campaign, and we are happy to oblige,” said Shweta Narayan, an activist with The Other Media.

Activists organisations have declared that they will build pressure on Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Unilever to commit to a world class clean-up in the lead up to the state Assembly elections in May 2016 and Unilever’s Annual Shareholders Meetings in England, the Netherlands and Mumbai in the coming months.

“People power works. That’s the key lesson we’re drawing from today’s big announcement. We’ll continue to lift up the hundreds of thousands of voices who have joined this campaign since last July to ensure that Unilever now cleans up its mercury mess in Kodaikanal,” said Rachita Taneja of public mobilization group Jhatkaa.org. Her group was one of the coordinators of the successful social media campaign that broke the media silence surrounding Unilever’s pollution in Kodaikanal.

Additionally, concerted actions by corporate accountability group SumOfUs in the United States and 38 Degrees in the United Kingdom helped draw in more international support and build pressure on Unilever.

A mercury thermometer factory operated by Hindustan Unilever in Kodaikanal was shut down by state regulators in 2001 after the company was caught for dumping toxic mercury wastes in a densely populated part of town. By the company’s own admissions, more than 2 tonnes of mercury have been discharged into Kodaikanal’s environment. A 2011 Government of India study on workers’ health concluded that many workers suffered from illnesses caused by workplace exposure to mercury.