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

would be making any money. I think you have to look at the multipliers all around: you got1200 people walking out of here with pay cheques. And that money goes to many things, andyou know, it turns over—these people aren’t flying to Moresby or flying to Honolulu oranywhere else, these people are putting this money into Wewak. So I’ve heard all the storiesand Frances [Sumanup] has been involved in it from the start—I mean, him a lot longer than I---and you’ve heard the comments about one of the major concerns was prostitution—you know,but not attributed to whether there’s a factory or not--the fishermen stay on the boat, I mean noone goes out to the boats—I mean, there’s more going on with the trans-shipping out there, andit never comes ashore, than would ever occur here. So the tuna factory has, I would have to say,improved that, because a lot of the boats that are coming in now are coming in to off-load at thedock and, you know, I mean…These boats were fishing here before, the fish was going toThailand, and the ladies were going out in the canoes. So I don’t think we’ve had any negative,I can’t see that weve had any negative impacts, and in fact we inject money into the community,and a lot of the ladies at the market are probably selling a lot more because there’s more moneygoing around, I gotta believe.”P: “Can people get medical leave?”IB: “Medical excuse? As per the Department of Labor, they produce the requireddocumentation, and as I understand it it’s a receipt that you’ve been seen by a doctor or thehospital and your medical book stamped, or medical certificate, you know; those documents areproduced, they can prove they’ve been sick, theyre entitled to their number of sick days…as perthe work agreement. We have the Department of Labour, but then you have the small Wewakagreement with the Dept of Labour. And it changes a couple of he entitlements, one of them Ibelieve was sick days..[They get] nine I think, a year. Three weeks paid vacation a year, onceyou become a permanent employee on your anniversary. After the ninety days probation you’rea permanent employee.”N: “Do they sign a contract?”IB: “No, the sick days are not paid, but after their first year anniversary they’re paid theirholiday pay and they can choose to take their 3 weeks at that time. Which is standard Dept ofLabour guidelines. Whatever the Dept of Labour guidelines are.“The factory is built to increase output to 200 tones a day (with a couple of additional pieces ofequipment) and we’d get 200 tonnes a day, and wed take on half again more employees.“It would matter [if there are other factories] for the work force, yea, it would matter tous…theres only so many people in the work force.Believe me, I mean, we have not had anytrouble hiring people, our problem’s been turning people away, and we employ, obviously thosepeople who are no show after a certain period of time, we hire more people, and some of thoserehired people are employees who are coming back again…and weve never had to sit down andsay where do we go next for employees?”N: “Your receive a tax break?”IB: “Tax incentives? We have a state agreement with the Govt of PNG which begins with thegovernmentt providing us with a suitable piece of land, at a reasonable rent, which is the landwe operate on, and the government gives us the usual deal that is offered any company to comein to PNG,,a tax abatement…I believe our agreement isa five year agreement with an option torenew, to a ten year agreement.”94