Taberannang Korauaba in Auckland and Parkelan Kabwere in Tarawa
Fifty employees of the Kiribati government-owned Betio Shipyard have been made redundant in a bid to keep the Tarawa-based company going.
Late last month, the management handed each worker with a cheque of $AUD $3500 ($NZ4765) as a redundancy package, severing their employment with the company.
Mareweia Redfern, shipyard general manager, said serious financial difficulties forced the company to lay off the employees.
“I hope you’re all aware that the company has gone through dreadful times during the past few years and one of them was a fire that destroyed our buildings,” he said.
Redfern said the redundancy was planned a long time ago.
He said management had a “big plan” to move the company to the next level but it could not do this because it had so many employees on its payroll with little profit.
“Every now and then, we received financial assistance from the government to help us get back on our feet. In addition, we have not arranged a loan from the bank or somewhere to improve our cashflow,” he said.
Deeply upset
Moote Utimaawa, one of the retrenched employees, said he was deeply upset with the redundancy.
“I know something has to be done to keep the business going, but I’m not satisfied with how it’s being carried out,” Moote said.
Asked what he planned to do, he said: ‘There’s nothing else I could do – my family and I are saving some money to pay for our boat fare to return to our home island.”
Utimaawa said he was the only breadwinner in his family – his wife, four children and several other family members. They are now living within the $AUD3500 redundancy package.
To make things worse, the Housing Corporation has given Utimaawa and his family three months to pack up their belongings and leave.
David Yeeting, chairman of the shipyard’s board, said he understood the degree of difficulty redundancy had on the families but said “it has to be done for the sake of the company”.
“I mean, how can we pay our employees when we don’t have much profit?” he asked.
Yeeting said the redundancy was primarily based on a survey by the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE, the committee that responsible for monitoring the progress of all companies of the government).
Overseas consultant
He said the overseas consultant proposed a number of recommendations in a report to cabinet, one of which was the removal of the hardware division in the shipyard.
Yeeting said there were other factors.
“It could be a fire, but it’s more than that. When I first joined the board, I learned that the company had a lot of financial problems,” he said.
Yeeting said one other major losses to the company was a deal with an overseas agent.
The shipyard sent the order with cash to that agent.
“The agent disappeared with the money like a ghost,” he said.
He did not disclose how much money was involved.
Boat construction
The shipyard is a local building company specialising in the construction of boats for the local markets such as businesses and communities.
It currently has two big projects, to build one boat for Banaba island and the other for Tabiteuea South.
The general manager said that with 29 employees it was likely that the company would “reap a fair return”.
Chairman Yeeting said a number of changes had been introduced to make the shipyard a viable industry in Kiribati.
The first was an organisational chart of the company.
Of the 50 redundant workers, 39 are from the capital South Tarawa and 11 from the company’s branch on Kiritimati Island and the Line group.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communication, Transport and Tourism Development, Tarsu Murdoch, said through her personal assistant she could not comment because she was busy preparing her minister’s papers for Parliament.
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