Promoting Decency?

Beer promotion workers selling Heineken, Carlsberg, Bavaria and other beer in Cambodian bars and restaurants earn too little to make a decent living. ‘Promoting Decency?’, a report published today by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) reveals that to compensate for their low wages, Cambodian beer promoters have to sit and drink beer with customers, often undergo sexual intimidation, have to work on their weekly days-off and occasionally resort to prostitution. As long as these workers do not receive a fixed monthly basic wage which is high enough to cover for their basic needs, these problems will not be solved. The SOMO report builds on the results of previous research and deals with beer promotion workers employed by several national and international beer brewers operating in the Cambodian market. The report recognises several improvements over the past couple of years in the working conditions of beer promoters. These are mainly due to the efforts of Beer Selling Industry Cambodia (BSIC), the industry body of breweries that Heineken and Carlsberg are members of. Despite these efforts however, there are still a significant number of issues to be dealt with to provide decent working conditions for beer promotion workers.