Fishy business. The Social Impact of SST.pdf - Act Now!

The present Human Resource Manager is not that interested in employee affairs. That is mypersonal conclusion, compared to Mr Wanyia, because whoever s/he is is never involved withthe employees on the ground. I would say that whoever the HRM person is, he/she is onlyinterested in administrative matters and not with its matters to promote the interest of thepeople.Personally I was not asked if I was part of any union. But I know that the SST administrationdoes not allow workers to have a union. Unlike at RD Tuna, Madang, where the company helpsits employees form a union, here at SST it is a dangerous movement and who would want torisk his or her employment?. As far as the company is concerned workers are not allowed tohave a union.About fees being paid to recruitment people to get employment- I don’t have any experience,and neither does Helen. We applied to get into SST, unlike the unskilled labor pool wherepeople get recruited from the settlements and the neighboring villages. But recruiting wantoks isfor sure, it happens.As far as I know there is no special privileges allotted to the customary landowners, neither foremployment nor spin-off benefits. SST’s spin-off programs were organized through theDepartment of Commerce. Interested people were asked to register their interest with K50 and Iwas among the first few people who registered an application of interest. Nothing happened.What the company wanted was for people interested in spin-off activities to form corporationsand groups to be able to participate and not work as individuals. To the best of my knowledgethere is no landowner groups involved in any form of spin-off businesses.On occasions we have fights and arguments among the employees themselves. We have fightsover men and a lot of sexual relations on the workplace between men and women. Somemarried people have extra martial affairs on the job and at times their wives fight with otherwoman near the front gate of the factory. It happens every now and then.Do the Asian supervisors to have sexual relationships with women in the factory?I can’t confirm but there are stories among the women that the Asians have done something tothem. Also other stories about local women involved with the Asian sailors. They do have someexchanges for food and other staff with the local people when the mother boats come, and otherstories about local women selling sex to them. I can tell you that yes, there are lots of stories butI can’t give evidence to prove. The local village here would be in good position to give yougood stories.Employees who work there for more than 3 months don’t usually smell what the people outsidesmell. Sometimes it really reeks in the factory. The factory is enclosed which does not allowventilation. That air inside is stuffy and hot and no doubt employees will stink like fish if theygo home after their shift. If you are in the Administration section of the factory there isabsolutely no smell – you won’t smell anything.They use a Dissolve Air Flotation Tank (DAFT) in the waste treatment process.The smell comes especially when the waste material is pumped into the boat (Iona) that belongsto Sepik Costal Agencies, which then takes it out into the sea and dumps it. I don’t know how145