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

Milisa, 23 years old, Nuigo settlement, Gengimangua Village. I am not working. I am notmarried. I am affected by that smell. I did work there for about a month and because of financialand too much labour and no good [geass?] of working. While working I have seen that manywomen or man are really involving in prostitution. While working some give excuse and wentout for no good reason to be involved in prostitution. I resigned because of illness like kus andfeeling like vomiting while working. I was working as a security guard, and I received K155fortnightly and towards K189 while working casually, as rating at K1.30 rate. I spend roughlyK100 to buy store bought equipment and market food and save K50 for later use for dailyneeds. I do save K50 every fortnight because of my needs or bilas like clothes and power billand water bill.Elijah, 20 years old, I’ve been working in the SST for four years. I also built the factory. I’mworking in the freezing. While I was building the factory I used to get 170 to 220, but when I’mworking in the factory I get 45 to 60.I got injured in the beginning of last year. I was injured inthe eye. I was working in the freezer and the ammonia gas exploded from the pipe and it cookedmy eye. It was an electrical fault from the pipe line to the factory and the ammonia gasexploded and cooked my eye. I have not been compensated by the factory but when I was in thehospital they paid the hospital fee and bought me a dark spex. I cannot see a far distance now.When I want to see from bright sun water used to come down from my eye and everythingseems to become dark. [After the injury] I think I lost half of my life with hard work and lesspay. I tried to take the company to court but my case was not considered carefully.Robin, Kreer Village, age 22, working in the SST factory. I get paid 35 to 60m kina perfortnight. I work in the loinery section. The health for the section is very smelly. ..I feel likehard work is done and less money is paid. While I was not working in the factory I was notaffording to have K60 in my pocket but while working now I’m able to have K60 in my pocket.Name withheld, security guard for SST, male age 30, originally from Kubalia. The companydoes not encourage unions, it tells employees only to respect company policies. As a securiotyguard he gets new gear and uniforms, Current wage is K1.50/hour and his total pay depends onthe shift roster. There are 3 shift rosters: One for 72 hours over 6 days; one for 108 hours over 9days; and one for 156 hours over 13 days. The company promised them a pay rise when they’dfinished paying off their first loan. Since he is single and living in the village he rates his wageas sufficient. Later when he’s married and has a family he may decide to ask for a pay increaseor a better job. As it is, his pay is spent on school fees for correspondence school, medicaltreatment, clothing and customary payments. ‘Yes, I smell a fishy odor inside the loinery butit’s not stinky. The same smell sticks on to workers in the production line and you can smell itwhen walking past them on the streets after shifts.’ There have been cases on the productionline where workers complained about unfair treatment and fought with their supervisors, butwere fired.His understanding of the supervisory staff make up is as follows:Ian Boatwood---USA/New ZealandHuman Resources—VacantPersonnel Manager—Philomena NawaraProduction—Edward, PhilippinesQuality Assurance—Elwin—PhilippinesEngineering—Mr. Miguel, PhilippinesSecurity Manager—Stewart Nigints, Western HighlandsFinancial Controller---Jeff Hardly, AustraliaSCF Rep—Mr Tsang, China154