Employer of 740 workers forced to cease operation

SAMOA – Samoa is reeling from the unexpected news this week that one of the country’s biggest employers is shutting down.

More than 700 employees of the country’s biggest employer in the private sector will soon find themselves without jobs following a shock announcement made by the company, Yazaki Eds Samoa.

The announcement was made during a press conference called by executives of the company at its Vaitele headquarters – a major blow for the struggling Pacific nation.

In a statement it cited “the competitive, fast changing automotive business environment, such as the withdrawal of the automotive manufacturing sector within Australia”.

Yazaki, which specialises in wiring harnesses, has operated in Samoa for 25 years, bringing much-needed manufacturing jobs to the developing nation of 200,000 people.

But with the Australian car manufacturing industry shutting down it has no market for its products.

Yazaki Samoa’s president, Craig O’Donohue, said the company had looked at diversifying away from car parts in a desperate bid to remain open and to keep workers in jobs.

“We had about eight key programmes – anything from tourism to shipping, agriculture, textiles,” he told the Samoa Observer.

“We put together a crazy summary of business opportunities. We looked strongly at breadfruit opportunities to make flour but we just couldn’t find a viable business.”

Ford rolled its last Australian-made car off the production line last Friday, eight years after Mitsubishi closed its South Australian plant.

Holden, the local division of General Motors, and Toyota are also in the process of winding up their Australian manufacturing operations.

“As a result we have been trying to identify other alternatives for this operation. Unfortunately we have not been able to identify anything viable and must therefore announce that we will phase out production operations in Samoa,” O’Donohue said.

Branding Division Manager in Japan, Yoko Yamada said the company “fully understands this is a difficult situation for their employees and their families”.

He said the company is committed to provide support where they can to make the transition smooth.

“We intend to provide as much support for the workers as possible,” he said.

O’Donohue said the situation was difficult and the company did not know exactly when it will officially close.

“I think you would understand that last Friday was the last production order for Ford Motor Cars in Australia and this is the start of what we are calling the winding down of Australian car operation. This is likely to continue in Australia until the end of 2017 but we have no idea exactly when.”

O’Donohue also assured the employees they would be would be given the necessary support in terms of up-skilling, re-skilling, life skill training and opportunities offshore.

He said the factory people would be given lump sum redundancy payments for their service.

General Manager, Funefeai Oliva Vaai, explained that an employee would be paid nine weeks minimum and up to 57 weeks maximum.

Employees who resign now would not be entitled to the redundancy packages.

This year, Yazaki celebrated 25 years of activities in Samoa.

- PNC