New Campaign To Lift Wages and Prevent HIV Deaths Among Beer Promotion Women
ACTU and International Union President Sharan Burrow will today (Saturday 27 May) launch a new campaign against the exploitation of young women in promotional campaigns by multinational beer companies seeking to gain a slice of the growing Asian beer market.
Ms Burrow is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to launch an international campaign by a coalition of unions, human rights and political leaders to highlight the inadequate wages of 'beer girls' & the high rate of HIV infection which is leading to thousands of early deaths among the women.
The campaign spotlights the shocking situation of young south east Asian women who are being exploited and subjected to sexual assault and violence while working in restaurants and karaoke bars to promote well-known beer brands including Heineken, Carlsberg, San Miguel, Stella Artois, Becks, Bass, Anchor and Budweiser (a major sponsor of this year's soccer World Cup). Australia's Fosters beer temporarily ceased selling in Cambodia in 2005.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said: "There are more than 20,000 'beer promotion women' working in Cambodia alone. These women wear the costume of an international beer and sell that brand exclusively, often to meet a quota of a 24-can case per night. The women receive about $2 a night or $55 a month -only about half what is needed to support their families. The low wage means many of the women are forced into prostitution, sometimes after drinking with a client to reach a sales quota.
The women are also subject to appalling assaults and violence with four reports of shootings since February this year, including that of a 23 year old woman, Kruy May. Off-duty Cambodian army officers were reported to have shot Kruy May in the foot for being slow in bringing ice for their drinks as they sang karaoke.
Research by a Canadian academic has found that 20% of the female beer promotion women in Cambodia are HIV positive and that local doctors estimate that within two years all of these women may be dead. The women's only chance of survival is for the international beer companies they worked for to step in and provide life-saving anti-retroviral medicines."
"Unions are also troubled by reports that many well-known beer brands are now aggressively expanding their markets into China using similar marketing strategies. Heineken is reported to already have 1200 beer girls operating in China where there is proportionately a much larger workforce of women that could face the prospect of the 20% HIV/AIDS related deaths seen in Cambodia," said Ms Burrow.
Unions, women's rights and aid groups are asking all the major beer and spirit brands that use promotion women to end their exploitation, provide health education to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS and contribute to the cost of health care for workers who are HIV positive.
"It is important that these major companies curb this dangerous and exploitative promotion strategy before it gets out of control in the growing Asian market. The price that young women are paying for helping big beer companies grow market share is far too high," said Ms Burrow. We have already had an encouraging initial response from major brewer Carlsberg and I hope to meet soon with other international beer companies," said Ms Burrow.
MORE INFORMATION:
Background Briefing on Cambodian Beer Promotion Women 25 May 2006, Global Coalition for Womens' Rights / Workers' Rights.
A Report on the Situation of Beer Promotion Women In Cambodia 2005, Private Sector Partnership Project.
Cambodian 'beer promotion women' and corporate caution, recalcitrance or worse? 2005, by Ian Lubek, The Psychology of Women Section Review
Beer companies operating in Cambodia: http://www.fairtradebeer.com
Women earn $150 a week less than male employees and the Government's drive to push employees onto individual contracts will make working women even worse off says the ACTU.
Official ABS data released this week also shows the gender wage gap has widened over the period 1994 –2004. Commenting ahead of a meeting today with Equal Oportunity Commssioner Pru Goward, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said: “The evidence shows there is a massive wages gap between women and men in the workforce and that this is worst for women on individual contracts* — the Government’s preferred form of employment.
Women on individual contracts earn $5.10 an hour less than men on individual contracts. Based on women’s average hours of work, this adds up to $152.00 a week less than men. Women on individual contracts are disadvantaged compared to men and also when compared to women on collective agreements. Non-managerial women on individual contracts earn around $2.50 an hour or $70 an week less than women on registered collective agreements.
The picture for women that are permanent part-time employees engaged on individual contracts is also shocking. These women earn on average $5.00 an hour or $141 a week less than their female counterparts on collective agreements and they also they earn on average $1.00 an hour or $28 a week less than women who are paid under awards. And it is not as though these individual contracts are giving women flexibility to make arrangements that suit their work and family needs.
In a recent study only 7 per cent of private sector individual contracts contained any work-family measure. Recent research also shows that, when non managerial workers are taken out of the results, individual contracts are associated with "increasing hours and work intensity, a poorer work-family-balance and lower satisfaction with pay and conditions".
Government changes to the way minimum wages are set to make them lower will also disadvantage women. With sixty per cent of award dependent workers being women, holding down minimum wages will hurt women the most. The Government’s changes also threaten the important role awards play to underpin decent wages and conditions in female dominated workplaces, especially in hospitality, retail and health and community services.
Government plans to cut industrial tribunals out of the wage setting process may also put an end to the capacity of women to pursue equal pay for work of equal value. This means that female -dominated industries and occupations such as dental technicians, childcare workers, aged care nurses, kinder teachers and librarians may no longer have an avenue to rectify the historical under-valuing of their work and achieve fair pay.
The Government has not provided any guarantee that mechanisms to pursue these claims will be retained. The Government should think again before it threatens the living standards of Australian women with its workplace changes.“
* ‘Individual contacts’ refers to ‘registered individual contracts (AWAs)’ throughout. May 2004 data.
Source: http://www.actu.asn.au/
Hundreds of thousands of working women calling for paid maternity leave will be disappointed by tonight's Federal Budget. All it delivers is a miserly 'baby bonus' of just $10 a week for new mothers, and even less for those who return to work, the ACTU said.
'Under the baby bonus scheme, John Howard values motherhood at just $1.37 a day, which would barely buy a litre of milk. This is not a fair return for the thousands of working women who have helped build a booming economy and contributed millions in taxes,' ACTU President Sharan Burrow said.
'This is a bloke's budget that provides a completely inadequate and unfair substitute for proper maternity leave as suggested by the Government's own Sex Discrimination Commissioner. There are plenty of toys for the boys in this budget but working women are left with the crumbs.'
Ms Burrow said low-paid women would receive the least from the baby bonus because the scheme is packaged as a tax rebate.
'Thirty per cent of working women (low income earners) will be entitled to less than $10 a week, 50% of women (middle income earners) will receive up to $16 a week, while just 5% (high income earners) will gain the most with a rebate of $48 a week.'
Ms Burrow said the budget papers confirmed that the scheme discriminated against working mothers by reducing the baby bonus rebate for those who return to work within five years of having a child.
'Australia's problems of an ageing population and falling fertility rates will not be solved by throwing a few extra crumbs to mothers who stay in the kitchen,' Ms Burrow said.
'At a cost of $500 million, it would be cheaper to show some real vision and introduce a proper national maternity leave scheme. Why doesn't the Government's vision include generational change for Australian women?'
Source ACTU Web site http://www.actu.asn.au/