Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Rep. Larry Sanitoa is expressing concerns over the special provision authorizing guest worker permits, as the Tualauta Faipule says there are a lot of challenges.

The comments were made by Sanitoa in a hearing last week, where the House was considering a bill to amend the special provision to include guest-worker permits for the stevedoring industry.

At the moment, the cannery is the only one allowed to bring people in from Samoa under guest-worker permits.

Deputy Attorney General Roy Hall and Chair of the Immigration Board Fanene Edda Wyberski do not support the bill.

The proposed measure was introduced by Tualauta Faipule Samuel Ioka Ale Meleisea. According to the measure, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a severe shortage of workers on island.

Sanitoa said the government has never been able to keep accurate records of the number of guest workers or at least follow up on so many of them and that’s because of a lack of personnel to do the job.

 “The provision itself is problematic to me, because I think we already have everything in a statute that protects not only the people that are coming in but also will have some accountability of the number of people that are coming in.

 “I was going to suggest perhaps we should have a sunset clause in there which sets a date that after we have these guest workers come in; that after such an amount of time, it goes back to the original statute.

 “This was a special amendment to the provision to allow those guest workers at the time when we couldn't get the board together because of the pandemic,” he recalled. 

Sanitoa said there is already a special provision to allow workers to come and work for any other industry such as construction.

 “And I don’t think they are allowed through the guest workers permit; they are going through the regular provision for a lot of these people to come in.

 “So I’m not sure why it is that it is any different then adding this just specifically for the cannery and the call center back then,” said Sanitoa.

Deputy Attorney General Roy Hall said the guest workers permit was in existence several years before the pandemic.

 “So it has been an operation that has been working and as far as I know we capped a few hiccups, but the immigration department and Starkist have been able to keep track of all the workers.

 “From what I've seen they keep records and if they don’t show up to work their services are terminated and they’re sent back to Samoa.

 “In regards to why we have it just for the cannery, the question is why expand it to include Stevedoring? If you want it expanded for Stevedoring, why not as you mentioned for the construction companies, why not for Cost-u-Less, why not for the other large employers and it will never end,” said Hall.

He said that right now the cannery is a major economic industry in the territory and that it was a special consideration to give them the privileged guest worker program.

Hall said there was at that time a consideration for a large call center operation that has not happened and that the Department of Commerce is still working on it. 

 “We have all the facilities with the internet capacity to be able to handle that — we just need to attract the industry to American Samoa and I believe that I would prefer to keep the call center in the current statute,” explained Hall.

Sanitoa said if it were up to him, he would “kill” the special provision.

The faipule further asked whether StarKist is still receiving tax exemptions and according to Hall the canneries are not 100 percent tax exempt.

 “They do pay taxes. The tax division label is sort of misleading — that they are paying zero taxes but they do pay taxes but it's based on a certain schedule,” explained Hall.

Earlier on, Hall said the cannery is a large employer and they have regularly scheduled work periods.

 “The Stevedoring industry works only when a ship or vessel is in port and to grant them the guest worker privilege would expand it to a point where anyone could obtain a business license and basically call it a Stevedoring business.

 “They may be hiring people just to unload a container at their store for stocking shelves,” said Hall.

Fanene also pointed out there are already challenges faced by immigration over the current guest workers, hence her objection to the proposed measure.

She told the lawmakers last week, as of January 31, 2023 there were 1,490 guest worker permits issued, and 1,488 IDs issued. The number of guest workers who have been terminated or resigned and returned to Samoa is 301.

She said the active number of guest workers in the territory as of January, stands at 1,189.

The House Legal Affairs/ Judiciary Committee opted to table the bill.