Heineken pledges to act on new claims of sexual abuse in Africa

The plight of beer girls in Asia and Africa is well-known but according to campaigners very little has been done to protect them from harassment.

On 26 March 2018 Heineken felt compelled to act and effectively do more to protect its sales agents in Africa after the national Dutch newspaper NRC published allegations of widespread sexual abuse in ten countries where Heineken operates.

Around 2,000 women work for the Amsterdam-based multinational firm as “promotional girls” or “beer girls” on the continent as part of a global sales force numbering 15,000 women, according to internal research by Heineken which was already carried out in 2007. Their actual number is unknown as Heineken – and other brewers – usually leave the recruiting of beer girls to sub-contractors.

The women’s work involves going around bars, cafes and restaurants to persuade owners to stock Heineken brands.

NRC said many of the women were sexually assaulted or propositioned by cafe staff in the course of their work. In some cases, prostitutes combined beer promotion with their regular work to win new clients for both themselves and the brewer. According to NRC’s research, beer girls in Nigeria are paid the equivalent of EUR 7 (USD 8.70) for a night’s work.

Heineken said it was difficult to monitor the work because most of it was outsourced, but pledged to step up its efforts to cut out abuse of its agents.

“The practices described are totally at odds with what we stand for as a company and we condemn these abuses in the strongest terms,” the company said in a statement.

“This subject deserves more attention in Africa than it has received in recent years from us and other interested parties. Together with our local workers’ councils, promotional agencies and other relevant parties, we will take further steps to tackle these abuses and prevent them happening in future.”

Heineken carried out an internal study in 2007 which led to 70 markets being labelled “high risk” for women working to sell their brands, but the findings prompted too few active measures, former personnel staff member Katinka van Cranenburgh complained to NRC.