Creating a safe workplace for our industry: Statement and Resources
February 3, 2022
Regrettably, once again we find ourselves sharing a statement on behalf of the board of the BC Craft Brewers Guild to acknowledge and support those experiencing harassment, abuse and sexual assault, and for speaking up and stepping forward with their personal accounts.
We thank @esbroadfoot for providing a platform for people to share the deeply personal accounts of this unacceptable behaviour that is being reported by brewery staff across Canada.
Our business is not merely about dedication to our craft, innovative brewing and our ingredients. Our business is formed to fulfill the needs of not just our customers but also our people who drive and serve it passionately and purposefully.
While we have acknowledged that there is important work to be done, it has progressed too slowly and fallen short thus far.
We are on a mission to create a safe workplace across this country for our industry.
The BC Craft Brewers Guild has been working with our membership, Jalapeno and Singleton Reynolds to create our own Anti-Harassment, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Code of Conduct Handbook. This work has been very intensive and required more time than originally expected, and for this we apologize. We want to get it right.
We are confident the Guild Code of Conduct Handbook will assist our member breweries with clearly evaluating or creating their own Code of Conduct and will supply the resources and guidance needed to create a safe work environment for all brewery staff.
Very soon we will be conducting a member webinar to launch the Code of Conduct Handbook. This will be followed by further training and discussion at the BC Craft Brewers Conference in November.
In the meantime, if you’re in need of support there are three tools at your disposal:
- Email the confidential email we set up that is monitored by Jalapeno – reachout@bccraftbeer.com
- Make a report via the #notme app Google iTunes
- File a WorkSafeBC Bullying and Harassment Claim
The board of the BC Craft Brewers Guild applauds the courage these people have demonstrated.
We thank them for breaking the silence.
We stand with them and we will address this matter with the utmost care.
We are working hard to do better.
We are on a mission to create a safe workplace across this country for our industry.
May 21, 2021
Our business is not merely about dedication to our craft, innovative brewing and our ingredients, Our business is formed to fulfill the needs of not just our customers but our people who drive and serve it passionately and purposefully.
Over the past week, people across our industry have been sharing personal accounts of harassment, abuse, and sexual assault with Brienne Allan through her Instagram account @ratmagnet. The behaviour highlighted in these accounts is deeply upsetting, unacceptable, and showcases how our industry has failed its core purpose of taking care of its people while doing business.
The board of the BC Craft Brewers Guild applauds the courage these people have demonstrated. We thank them for breaking the silence. We stand with them and we will address this matter with utmost care.
We are on a mission to create a safe workplace across this country for our industry.
It is clear that we must make our industry a better place to work. Words alone will not accomplish this, so here are actions we are taking to ignite radical change. In partnership with the Canadian Craft Brewers Association, Jalapeno, and other organizations dedicated to creating safe and respectful workplaces, we have been working on initiatives with a strategic, data-driven approach to create fundamental change at both the company and national level.
In partnership with the CCBA, we are in the process of Culture Scanning all breweries in Canada to ensure we are taking the most effective steps towards intervention and improvement in our industry. Please watch your inboxes in June for the Diversity benchmarking survey, we need all people working in craft beer in Canada to fill it out and we will need your help to get the information to all people employed in our industry.
In the meantime, if you are in need of support we request that you reach out to us directly via reachout@bccraftbeer.com so we may connect you to our resources. We assure you that all information will be kept confidential to protect your privacy.
As part of our mission to create a safe workplace across the industry, we will also be incorporating a channel in the businesses where employees can safely report cases of harassment, abuse, and assault.
We acknowledge this is overdue and truly appreciate your patience while we execute this necessary step forward. We are hopeful this plan will contribute to a cultural shift within our industry and help to eradicate the toxic behaviour that is entrenched in our system.
Thank you to the following organizations for your guidance and collaboration. Please visit the links below for further resources.
Canadian Craft Brewers Association
Heather from Diversity in Brewing
Ken Beattie
Executive Director, BC Craft Brewers Guild
and on behalf of the Guild Board
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