BEER BAR GIRLS

Our research showed that the beer promotion earnings were only about half of what was needed to support their children and extended rural families. Most had second jobs, and about 56% accepted some propositions for sex for money.

Beer promotion women (called locally, beer girls) exclusively sell one brand of beer in bars and restaurants. It is usual for them to have to sell one case of beer per night in return for a monthly salary averaging approx $US55 - about half the income needed to support their family. To suppliment their income, about half accept propositions from tourists and local beer drinkers and exchange sex for money.

Condom use following beer drinking is low; HIV/AIDS prevalence averages 20% for the past 7 years. While, they may sell $13,000 worth of beer annually for their company, they are paid $600-$800 and cannot afford the yearly $360 cost for life-prolonging anti-retrovirals. Death follows from 3 months to 2 years after diagnosis; beer girls are replaced with new young women from the countryside, often with less than 1 hour of training.

In 2000, we began with students and members of a Cambodian NGO called SiRCHESI (Siem Reap Citizens for Health Education and Social Issues) to develop prevention programs for women and others at risk for HIV/AIDS in Siem Reap, Cambodia. One group at high risk were the underpaid “beer promotion women”, who wore the costume of an international beer and sold that brand exclusively, often to meet a quota of a 24-can case per night. We systematically interviewed beer-girls, distributors, and surveyed women at risk coming for voluntary HIV/AIDS testing. Twenty percent were HIV+ and most, local doctors told us, would die in less than 2 years following diagnosis.

Among the international beers being marketed in Cambodia, Heineken is the most expensive, premium beer; the exclusive local distributor, Attwood, has successfully niche-marketed Heineken, along with Hennessy Cognac, Johnny Walker, etc. Asia Pacific Breweries markets several brands as well, including ABC Stout, Anchor and Tiger Beers. Since the 1930s, Heineken has owned about a one-third stake in APB. In addition, Angkor beer is a popular lower priced beer produced by Cambodian Breweries (Cambrew) , which also bottles the APB beers. One other Dutch brand, “Three Horses” from Breda, also uses “beer girls” to sell its brand, in competition with other international brands from Interbrew ( Stella Artois, Beck’s, Labbatt’s, Hoegaarden), as well as such other breweries as Fosters, Boon Rawd (Singha, Leo), San Miguel, Carlsberg, Budweiser, etc.

Heineken reportedly already has 1200 beer girls operating in China. Will 20% of this workforce, which might be expected to expand in the coming year, also die of HIV/AIDS, as has been the Cambodian experience. On the death of Vee, a Foster’s “beer girl” who was HIV+ and had been cared for by other “beer girls” when she got too sick to work one evening; when they came after work to feed her, she was gone. She had died that morning, and with no employer or relative to arrange the Buddhist cremation ceremony, her body had been “discarded” by the police. Srei Neamb, one of her colleagues, shared her emotions and feelings of existential crisis with us during the follow up July interviews. Others also joined her in expressing dismay at the corporate disrespect, after working exclusively for one Beer Company, of suddenly becoming a “throwaway beer girl”.

In a very forward-looking document about Heineken's intended response to HIV/AIDS in its workforce, H. P. Bart de Jonge, Director Corporate Human Resources, has stated in his forward: "We sincerely hope that Heineken will set an example for both international businesses and governments to jointly fight this pandemic...that the salaries dispersed each month to the "beer promotion girls" were reimbursed immediately as "promotion and advertising costs" from Heineken's. ... . We do not know how Heineken accounts for these monies in its annual reports or whether discussion is ever made of the issue of "promotional sales workers" in various countries. We do know that in Siem Reap a Heineken's beer costs $1.50 US (compared to $1.20-$1.30 for other international brands) and that some of that retail price ultimately will flow back to Heineken International, it's shareholders and investors.”

Among the proactive steps discussed locally that Heineken could take to stem the high rate of seropositivity among its employees/sales promoters might be the following:

Heineken already realizes that the consumption of alcohol can in some cases increase the risk of unsafe sex and HIV transmission. In other countries, bar promotion women who drink with customers (e.g., trying to meet their sales quotas) often have available either alcohol-less mixed drinks or alcohol-free beers.

"Beer girls" require about $100 monthly income; they generally make $40-60 as Heineken's saleswomen. An immediate improved salary structure of $5-6 dollars per day (rather than industry-standard $2) or a commission of $6 per case (rather than $2-3 current industry rate) would more than meet the income needs of these women (who often are single mothers, and who always support extended rural families with their salaries). The pressing financial need for occasional indirect sex work activities would for the majority of cases simply cease, as our interviewees have told us.

We have also discussed recently with local management the "morale problem" among the women who believe they are working for Heineken's-- they wear the Heineken's uniform, exclusively sell that beer, and compete with all the other companies' promotion teams in each restaurant for Heineken's market share. When they sell a case worth $36 US and receive $2-3 in recompense, Heineken's may want to rethink the balance between the portion of each sale going to the overall corporate profit statement and to the shareholders and investors, at the expense of a possible 16-23% of the sales-force succumbing to HIV/AIDS.

The CARE “Selling Beer Safely” program it is hoped will come quickly and fully on line in Phnom Penh and then expand throughout Cambodia, if evaluation shows that it is effective in changing behaviours. It can then perhaps be “sold” to the other beer companies, as well; perhaps, in months or years, as the case may be, we may begin to measure a decline in infection and mortality rates for beer-girls from its constant 20% rate of the past 5 years. But the brief CARE Australia web-site description only mentions prevention, not treatment. Will Heineken not step in and offer anti-retrovirals to any of its sales force now in need? Or will there be other “throwaway” beer girls, paid for by that same “advertising/promotion” budget line in the annual shareholders reports as are the throwaway coasters and posters?

The infections (and consequent deaths) of beer-girls from HIV/AIDS has been annually tracked by the Cambodian government for the past decade; in 2000, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the problem in Cambodia for breweries and their shareholders. Other journalists have also written about this and NGOs have stepped in to try and deal with this problem. But not the beer companies themselves. They continued to use a system which puts its female sales force at risk of death before the age of 30. These women bring in about $13,000 in sales each year they are healthy and alive, are paid no more than $800, and cannot afford the additional $360 per year for clone anti-retrovirals to stay alive.

We have asked Heineken and other international and local breweries using “beer promotion women” to make money in Cambodia to act fairly towards these womento provide them with adequate income to preclude the necessity of additional indirect sex work e.g., $5 per day and/or a monthly salary of $120; to provide health education and HIV/AIDS prevention information and behaviour change strategies and to provide health benefits including anti-retrovirals and other medications should the person be HIV+ and require them.