Coca-Cola Merchandisers Demand End to Contract With We-Evolve Marketing Agency Over Harassment, Salary Deductions and Unfair Dismissals

Weeks after this platform first brought to light the grievances of Coca-Cola merchandisers working under We Evolve Marketing Agency, a fresh wave of correspondence from workers on the ground indicates that the situation has not improved and that, in the view of several employees, matters have taken a turn for the worse since the earlier exposé was published.

According to multiple merchandisers who reached out following the initial report, supervisors within the agency were directed to issue warning letters over minor infractions, a pattern that workers say was designed less to enforce discipline and more to intimidate anyone suspected of having spoken to the press.

Several employees describe an atmosphere in which even small, previously overlooked errors are now being documented and used as grounds for formal reprimand, a shift that occurred, according to those affected, in the immediate aftermath of the earlier story going public.

Workers further state that dismissals have followed this pattern of heightened disciplinary action, with a number of merchandisers reporting that colleagues believed to have contributed information to the original report have since been let go.

Those who remain say they now approach every interaction with supervisors with a heightened sense of caution, aware that the smallest misstep could be used against them.

Perhaps most striking among the claims is the assertion, relayed by several merchandisers, that a senior figure within the agency openly dismissed the possibility of change regardless of continued public exposure.

Workers describe this individual as having told staff that no amount of publicity would alter the agency's practices, and as having pointed to a change in ownership, with new shareholders linked to LG, as evidence that the current arrangement is here to stay.

For the merchandisers who shared this account, the remark has only deepened a sense that their complaints are being treated with indifference rather than being taken seriously.

The workers are now calling for the matter to reach a wider audience, requesting that Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) management, along with the global Coca-Cola corporate structure, be made aware of what is unfolding at the ground level of the company's merchandising operations in the country.

Merchandisers describe their daily responsibilities in granular detail, explaining that the polished, well-arranged displays customers encounter in supermarkets are the product of their labour: building and maintaining promotional podiums, cleaning shelves, rotating stock, and monitoring expiry dates.

On this last point, several workers describe a particularly troubling practice: when expired products are discovered on the shelves they are personally assigned, they are required to cover the cost out of their own pockets, with the deductions coming from a monthly salary already reported to stand at roughly KSh24,000.

Workers argue that this combination of low pay, out-of-pocket liability for expired stock, and the added fear of retaliation for speaking up amounts to a working environment that leaves them, in their own words, invisible, overworked, and undervalued, despite serving one of the most recognisable consumer brands on the continent.

The merchandisers are demanding that Coca-Cola's leadership review and terminate its contractual relationship with We Evolve Marketing Agency, arguing that only a change in the entity managing their employment will resolve the underlying pay and treatment issues that have persisted across successive agency transitions.

They further insist that any resolution must include fair and transparent compensation, given that many among them are the sole providers for their households and carry family responsibilities that a stagnant, unpredictable wage struggles to meet.

The claims outlined here, including those concerning warning letters, dismissals, and remarks attributed to agency leadership, are presented as accounts relayed directly by workers who requested that their identities be withheld out of fear of reprisal.

This publication continues to invite We Evolve Marketing Agency, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, and the Coca-Cola Company to respond directly to the concerns raised by their workforce.

As it stands, the merchandisers say their appeal is a simple one: that the companies whose products they promote across the country's supermarkets take the time to listen to the people responsible for those displays, and that their concerns be met with dialogue rather than the threat of further disciplinary action.

"Hello Mr Nyakundi. Thank you for exposing the rot Coca-Cola merchandisers go through. We're really suffering under the leadership of We Evolve Marketing Agency. We're getting information that supervisors have been directed to issue warning letters to merchandisers over slight mistakes and dismiss them because we have exposed the rot within the agency. Again, there's a top leader from the agency who's now bragging that whether we continue to expose it or not, no changes will be made because the shareholders are new management that came from LG Company to Coca-Cola. But why do they eat our money in the name of the agency? Kindly help us tag Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) management and the Coca-Cola fraternity worldwide to come through. Nyakundi, all the beautiful displays you see in supermarkets and the arrangements are the work of merchandisers. We do heavy work, we arrange all podiums in supermarkets, we clean shelves, and when expired products are found in the shop, we are forced to pay for them using that KSh 24,000 salary. Yet we are the most invisible, most harassed, and least paid workforce at the Coca-Cola company. We're demanding that the leadership of the Coca-Cola company cancel all the contracts they have with this agency and start paying us well. Merchandisers are also human beings, and they have families to feed and responsibilities to take care of. Mr Nyakundi, please stand with us until Coca-Cola management hears our plea and cries. Thank you so much. Hide ID please."