Press release: 13 April, 2008.  
International brewers still behaving badly in Cambodia. 

Latest research findings suggest Heineken and other brands, despite statements to media and shareholders, have not made significant progress this year to reduce high risks to their women beer-sellers in Cambodia.  
Professor (re)-suggests that Heineken pay a “living wage”, provide free HAART for HIV+ beersellers, improve health education before employment, provide contracts transparently, and end all workplace drinking (for starters). 

	This week, Heineken shareholders might expect to hear from their CEO some promised improvements  following a report by SORO and questions from VDPO shareholders at last year’s General Meeting on the dangerous situation faced by Heineken’s Cambodian beersellers. But the situation in Cambodia may actually be worsening, according to preliminary data reported by Professor Ian Lubek of the University of Guelph (Canada) and Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Australian National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales (Australia), during a series of talks this month in New Zealand and Australia. After reading the Heineken Annual report for 2007 and the Sustsainability report, he remains unconvinced that the well-crafted descriptions about Cambodian beerselling practices are in fact consistent with recent evidence gathered in the field. 
	Since 2000, a team of international researchers and students have studied Cambodians at risk for HIV/AIDS and additional challenges to their health, safety and security. Women who sell international brands of beer in restaurants had HIV seropositive rates of 20.4% (1995-2003). In collaboration with trained health-workers in the NGO SiRCHESI, about 140 beersellers have been interviewed annually (2001-2008) in an ongoing study at the local Siem Reap health clinic. An additional 300 beersellers have been interviewed since 2002 in health workshops and workplace interviews in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. (Additional interviews with beersellers have also been done in Singapore and Canada, where the same Heineken/Tiger products are sold by beersellers under much safer conditions (see research posted at www.beergirls.org ).
	There is little positive news to report in 2007-8, despite reported industry efforts of Heineken, its partner Asia Pacific Breweries’ (Tiger, Anchor, ABC) brands, partners in the BSIC professional association “Beer Selling Industry Cambodia” (e.g., Carlsberg, Guinness) and some of its competitors including INBEV and other smaller players in the market. There has in fact been a 50% increase in sales in 2007-8, (compared to 2004-6) by BSIC brands, while sales did not improve for non-BSIC members. (Heineken itself reports 15% growth in sales in Cambodia in 2007).  BSIC brands represent over 80% of beer sales. But some of the policies of BSIC, stated in its Code of Conduct (see www.bsicambodia.com) have actually caused a setback to the beersellers in the past year. 
Living wage? : In 2007-8, Heineken family beersellers  reported their monthly family needs at $153 but their income was just $61.15, or 40%, with no change from 40.5% in 2004-6 . Across the industry, there was no significant difference in earnings according to whether payment was by salary with promised (but usually not delivered)  bonuses (as with Heineken and BSIC members) or on per-case commission (INBEV and others). Research reported at www.fairtradebeer.com and www.ethicalbeer.com shows the beerselling women consistently being underpaid since 2002 by about 50%. Doubling the wages to a “fair” or “living” wage would solve many problems. Research shows that if salaries were doubled to meet family needs, sex work and risk taking would cease; we have accumulated much evidence for this, although male beer executives never seem to want to understand that the women are coerced and forced into selling sex , because their employer is insensitive to their economic and health situation.
The NGO SiRCHESI has taken since 2006 27 beersellers out of their dangerous workplaces and in partnership with 8 local hotels, have provided educational and apprenticeship training for hotel jobs, with $110 living wage guaranteed for at least 2 years. All drinking and selling sex stopped immediately.

	Are the beersellers being deliberately underpaid?  In fact when we observe the amount of beer being sold – about 24 litres or 3 cases of Heineken/Tiger nightly, 27 nights a month–- the Heineken beer sellers should  make over $480 if paid at the industry average commission of $6.00 per case for non-BSIC members, instead of the $60 in salaries and bonuses offered by Heineken, Tiger, Carlsberg and BSIC partners as a non-living wage.  These “savings” in the payment of salaries to beersellers of course means that more money comes to shareholders, including VDPO. But is this an ethical or sustainable practice?  

	Why have working conditions not improved for these underpaid workers? 
  
 Dangers of the job: Women reported still feeling pressured to drink beer with customers (75%  in 2007-8) while 80% had been threatened by a customer with violence  if they didn’t drink. And 96% reported drinking with their customers, despite a prohibition in the BSIC Code of Conduct and in Heineken’s own workplace policies.. Only 19% reported themselves happy in the job, and 34% reported  being forced to trade sex for money– sometimes in the workplace itself (18% in 2007-8). Others reported unwanted sexual touching (23%) . Less than 5% felt the job was empowering, gave them a good social reputation, or good self-esteem, and 98% felt that others looked down upon them as beersellers. Only 49% felt safe in their workplace where they and their colleagues are subject to violence and harassment; 50% reported seeing (2007-8) other beersellers physically hurt at work . 72% currently felt at risk for HIV/AIDS. 
Effective, pre-emptive health education: Although BSIC and Heineken support health education for the beersellers, many beerservers reported not receiving any education or only receiving it 6 months or  more after they started work ( 17.2%). Only 19% received education before they started or on the first day. For the harmful effects of alcohol, most beersellers need to understand these when they start drinking on their first day on the job. Should they be impaired and have sex with clients before receiving health education, they are at higher risk for HIV/AIDS. Overall about 60% of beersellers reported receiving some form of health education, with Heineken reaching 74%. But only 9% of Heineken beersellers received it on the first day of work or before starting (below the industry average) , and 24% received it after 6 months or not at all.  And often it is public health agencies (Provincial AIDS Office)  or other NGOs such as SiRCHESI that run the health workshops; company-supplied training programs such as Selling Beer Safely account for just 40% of training overall. 
No drinking on the job: A breathalyzer study of Siem Reap beer sellers in 2006 found the average level of blood alcohol at about 9 pm was already .05, the level of impaired judgment in most countries. By 2007-8, 100% of beersellers (N=83) said that their drinking had become hazardous to their health. (A standard clinical scale of chronic alcoholism, AUDIT, showed hazardous levels of drinking in the Cambodian women’s samples).   Overall, 7% had abstained from drinking on the last 2 previous nights. Those who drink are still, despite the BSIC prohibition against drinking on the job, consuming on an empty stomach 1.34 litres nightly or more than 5 standard drinks, leading to harmful and chronic health effects and a reduction in condom use. Curiously, they report in 2007-8 on average that 1.4 litres of beer, or 4.2 cans, would be  harmful to someone’s health. Heineken beer servers in 2007-8 drank 1.2 litres nightly (or 5 standard drinks) compared to 1.4 litres (6 standard drinks) in 2004-6. Shareholders should realize that if the beersellers stop drinking on the job, there would be a drop of from 5-25% in nightly beer sales, depending on brand.  
Free HAART for HIV+ workers: It doesn’t cost much to keep people alive: 	Companies such as Heineken, with an international HIV policy applied to male brewery workers (and spouses) in Africa since 2002, still refuse to offer HAART to infected beer-sellers who were until recently not considered salaried workers but were part of the advertising budget and thus ineligible for health benefits . After not taking any actions between 2002 and 2008 to provide HAART, Heineken now suggests in its shareholders’ report that the government’s program should take on this responsibility. However the Government program is not fully ramped up, and has imposed constraints about CD4 level and the necessity to live in close proximity to the HAART distribution centre, something which eliminates many people where no public transit exists. The Heineken African model where HAART is administrated at the workplace site would make much more sense in caring for the needs of its workers.
Contracts available for consultation: Now they have signed contracts, according to the BSIC CODE. But when asked, none could produce copies, as only one signed copy went to the company. The beersellers could not remember the terms of their contract and what benefits they might expect. Requests to the major companies and to BSIC for a copy of the contract were turned down. A Khmer copy of the CODE of Conduct was recently supplied, although none of the beersellers we interviewed knew of this code. (See www.bsicambodia.org)  If they now are “workers” under the Cambodian Labour Code, what are their rights under Heineken’s and other brewers’ international policies, rules for social responsibility and sustainability? 

	Some final questions: 1)Are shareholders and executives willing to pay, at least, “living” wages, or permit Heineken beersellers to receive a commission on their  increasing sales volumes. 
	2) Will they accept a small decline in sales if beersellers stopped drinking on the job? 
3) Can the educational programs be strengthened and made pre-emptive, as they will not prevent AIDS and alcohol abuse if administered after the beerseller has started working and drinking.
	4) If these same ideas have been passed to the executives of Heineken and major brewers every year since 2002, and the situation still deteriorates, what is the mechanism to get the decision-makers to take urgent steps to prevent workplace harm and mortality from continuing among women wearing the Heineken logo and uniform? 

		
CONTACT: 				
Ian Lubek, 
Psychology Department, Universwity of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1 Canada	
and Visisting Professorial Fellow, NCHSR, UNSW, Kensington, NSW 2052 Australia.

Contact: Email: ilubek@uoguelph.ca

SKYPE Phone: 33-(0)870445595 or ilubek
Australia Cellphone: 61- 04-10787100         (until Apr. 15, 2008) 
Cambodia Cellphone: 855 - 012-520 957     (After Aug. 16, 2008).

www.angkorwatngo.com  (See Newsletter,2008.)  For specific information about the health and safety risks faced by Cambodian "beer selling women" and our health outreach and Hotel Apprenticeship programs, please visit www.beergirls.org , www.ethicalbeer.com , www.fairtradebeer.com and see also www.bsicambodia.com, www.bsicambodia.org  .