Carlsberg and unions work together to combat the exploitation of "beer girls"
The working conditions of "beer girls", euphemistically called "beer promoters", are a disgrace. Although NGOs have long criticised how beer girls are being exploited, especially in Asia but also in Africa, it has taken Carlsberg and the Danish trade unions until this August to come to some sort of agreement on how to better work together to materially improve the conditions of beer promoters in Cambodia.
Never mind that beer girls have a tough life in many markets, it was the Cambodian girls’ plight that alerted international NGOs to action.
In a statement of 23 August 2012, Carlsberg said that "working in bars, women sales promoters in Cambodia are occasionally exposed to harassment from customers, coerced into drinking, and in some cases, subjected to sexual abuse."
"Occasionally"? "In some cases"? Well, it’s all a matter of perspective.
Asia Monitor Resource Center, an NGO, reported in 2011 that the women hired as beer girls - 4000 in Cambodia – are generally young and attractive, and are often asked to wear revealing, branded uniforms representing the beer they competitively sell in Cambodia’s bars, restaurants, and beer gardens. They often sit and talk with the primarily male clientele, and continuously encourage them to drink their brand.
"Most beer distributors hire these young women from poor families with promises that they will earn plenty of money and be taken care of, and then throw them into the fray with less than an hour of training, and paying them only for what they sell. This comes to an average monthly salary of USD 50 to USD 55, which is less than half of what it costs just to survive. The young women are under heavy pressure from their employers to do anything that is necessary to sell the beer, and that means they have to drink with each of the men buying from them, often ending up very drunk at the end of the night", Asia Monitor says.
The women face all kinds of "occupational hazards" in terms of workers’ health and safety, such as alcohol overuse from forced drinking with customers. What worries NGOs even more is that women often are forced to exchange sex for money with customers as they cannot make a living on their wages. This has led to them being socially stigmatised as "bad women".
While it is true that some companies prohibit beer girls from sitting with or drinking with customers as a way of reducing harassment, it is equally true that within venues, women fall under the effective control of outlet owners and managers.
Cambodian beer girls went on strike in 2010 and 2011 according to media reports. In August 2011, Carlsberg, which owns half of Cambodian brewer Cambrew, said it was investigating the issue, after Ian Lubek, a Canadian academic who has researched “beer girls” in Cambodia for 12 years, told Scandinavian news services: “Company directors are often oblivious to what is going on in the field. Headquarters set quotas for how much beer should be sold in the region and rarely consider employees’ issues."
There are just two breweries in Cambodia – Cambodia Breweries Ltd (CBL), in which Singapore’s Asia Pacific Breweries has an 80 percent stake, and CamBrew.
The Confederation of Danish Trade Unions and Carlsberg Group have already started sharing information and establishing working groups as part of this cooperation and expect some concrete results in the future that will improve beer promoters working conditions in Cambodia, Carlsberg’s statement said.
About time, too.
