Brewers Association Shares Complaint and Remediation Process for Code of Conduct Violations

A month after launching its code of conduct for members, the Brewers Association (BA) shared its complaint and disciplinary process during a town hall meeting on Tuesday.

“We’re interested in creating a process that provides education and self remediation — we’re not looking for punishment, cutting off heads,” said BA board member Wynne Odell, co-founder of Fort Collins, Colorado-based Odell Brewing. “The idea is we can take missteps people made and perhaps lead them in a better direction.”

Although the disciplinary process focuses on education and mediation, it “does allow us to take the ultimate resolution of revoking membership,” Odell said.

The five-step process starts when a member violates guidelines laid out in the code of conduct for behavior in four areas:

  • Compliance with law;
  • Respect for the individual and groups;
  • Responsible alcohol consumption;
  • And responsible alcohol marketing.

Under the code’s respect for individuals and groups section, the BA specifies that members must “treat all individuals and groups respectfully, recognizing their human dignity, regardless of their diverse human characteristics: race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, physical or mental disability, size or appearance, genetic pre-disposition, religion, ancestry, national origin, or veteran status.”

Additionally, members must “contribute to a positive environment that is free of hostile and offensive behaviors; i.e. free from harassment.”

Only members of the BA’s professional brewing division are authorized to file complaints, but complaints may come from a group of members, Odell said. After a complaint is filed, the BA’s appointed panel will have 60 days to investigate the complaint and decide whether to advance it to the board of directors. Complaints must attain a two-thirds majority vote to be elevated to the board.

The panel, which the BA said it expects to name by the end of the month, will consist of three independent experts who do not work at breweries in order to maintain impartiality, similar to the panel it appointed to review marketing and advertising complaints.

“The panel will consist of three impartial business professionals with experience in fields related to potential areas of complaint (i.e. alcohol beverage and employment law, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) best practices),” the BA told Brewbound.

Both the person filing the complaint and the subject of the complaint can submit evidence to the panel, who will keep all proceedings confidential from the board until it decides to pass the complaint along or not. There are several scenarios in which complaints might not advance, Odell explained.

“The panel has a number of options when it’s reviewing the complaint and at any time they can dismiss a complaint that’s knowingly false or misleading, or filed for improper purposes,” she said. “They can dismiss a complaint if the subject of the complaint — and this would be great — promptly takes appropriate remedial action to address the conduct complained of, or if the complainant party just waited too long to file the complaint and it’s no longer currently relevant.”

Once a complaint reaches the board of directors, they have 30 days to determine the action taken. Possible outcomes include:

  • Censure;
  • Membership conditioned on a member taking certain remedial action;
  • Removal from membership for a set period of time;
  • Or indefinite removal from membership.

In some instances, the filer of the complaint will remain anonymous to the subject of the complaint, such as problematic labels or social media posts. In other instances, particularly complaints about workplace scenarios, the filer will be identified.

During their investigation, the independent panel will not share information with the board. Information will be divulged to the public on a case-by-case basis.

“If something awful happens and it’s out in the social media and everyone knows about it, and someone comes to the Brewers Association and says ‘Are you dealing with this,?’ the Brewers Association will acknowledge that they are undergoing proceedings to investigate it without giving away any confidential information,” Odell said. “Ultimately, the Brewers Association will publish the final decision for everyone to see.”

The BA will only entertain complaints regarding improper behavior after August 6, 2020, the day the board adopted the code of conduct. This means that past racist behavior by owners and employees of breweries such as Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Founders Brewing, who settled a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee, and Minneapolis, Minnesota-basd 56 Brewing, where former owner Kale Johnson divested himself of his ownership stake after it was reported that he taunted a Black employee with a piece of rope tied to look like a noose, will go unpunished.

“If this has been conduct that’s been happening for five years and continues to happen then, it would be appropriate to file a complaint,” Odell said. “Otherwise, we feel it’s beyond our capacity to reach into the past for activity that’s no longer occurring.”

This week, Founders, an associate member of the BA due to an ownership stake by global brewer Mahou San Miguel, introduced a five-phase, three-year diversity, equity and inclusion plan.

“We strive to become a driving force for change by building a culture where all employees bring their whole, true, unique self to work every day,” Founders wrote. “We want our actions to have a positive ripple effect in the communities that we serve, and that starts with us ensuring transparency and accountability in everything we do.”

Former Founders employee Tracy Evans filed the discrimination lawsuit against the company in August 2018, alleging that co-workers used slurs in his presence, and that the company had a “racist internal corporate culture.” In October 2019, a leaked deposition revealed that Evans’ former manager declined to acknowledge that Evans is Black (he is). Amid backlash, Founders diversity and inclusion director Graci Harkema resigned, saying her advice was ignored.

Public outcry began building on social media this summer when the BA issued a statement after protests against police brutality and racial injustice began building nationwide following the death of George Floyd.

Critics said the BA had not addressed issues like the ones at Founders and 56 Brewing, which pushed the BA to begin the process of developing the code of conduct and complaint process.

“We’ve, as a society, all been called to account for not paying enough attention to racial and social justice in the United States, and again the Brewers Association and our industry is not immune from these criticisms,” BA board chair and Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban said during Tuesday’s town hall. “I can tell you that the BA board, BA staff, all of the committees, in addition to trying to do what we can to help our own breweries, have been dedicated to making sure that the Brewers Association not only weathers these storms, but emerges stronger, more resilient, more diverse and more inclusive than ever.”