The pinkeye epidemic sweeping the nation has hit workers and bosses hard, with businesses and government reporting high levels of absenteeism.
Yazaki Samoa, Samoa’s largest private sector employer, is reporting a 20 per cent drop in employee attendance rates.
Yazaki General Manager, Funefeai Oliva Va'ai said normally his company has 95 per cent employee attendance, however last week saw that number drop to 76 per cent.
“The rate of absenteeism is pretty high,” he said. “Today (Friday) was rock bottom down to 76 per cent.
“It has impacted a lot on our lines because certain people have certain tasks to do,” he said.
“So we have had to close down some lines because we haven’t got the necessary people to man them. “It means that we may have to look at overtime later on to meet our quota.”
He said Yazaki has been following the Ministry of Health’s advice and have been sending people home if they show signs of the disease.
“Also in the morning, afternoon and evening we have been encouraging people to wash their hands and not to shake hands,” he said.
Meanwhile, government departments have not been immune to the disease with the Public Service Commission Secretary Naea Beth Onesemo- Tuilaepa saying Pinkeye has probably affected the Public Service the same way that it has affected every other place of employment and organisation in the country. “People who are affected are advised to stay at home utilising sick leave to minimise spread,” she said.
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“Those who are well will continue to work and extra precaution is taken in the workplace, following advice from the Ministry of Health with regards to hygiene and cleanliness.”
Naea said it was hard for her to gauge how many people within the Service were affected because since 2004 with the passage of Public Service Act 2004, the Samoan Public Service operates under a decentralised human resource management framework.
“This means that everything from the hiring to firing of permanent staff including their daily supervision and management as well as running of day to day operations of agency, is the responsibility of individual C.E.O.s,” she said.
“Thus, individual Ministries and C.E.O.s would be privy to information on absenteeism in their own agency.
“It is also the responsibility of individual C.E.O.s to ensure that the necessary arrangements are made for continuation of their services as well as seeing to health of their staff.”
She said if in an extraordinary event, services cannot be delivered due to impact of disease, individual C.E.O.s can alert them and make a decision to close.
P.S.C. receives a summary of human resources statistics and other information after each quarter.
“The report for the January- March quarter is due in at the end of April.
“Only then will we have data on total absenteeism for the period.” In regards to her department, she said her staff have also been taking heed of the warnings issued by the Ministry of Health.
“As stated above, responsibility for minimising the impact of events such as eye disease within each agency is the responsibility of individual the C.E.O.
“If they need advice (or) assistance from us, C.E.O.s (and) Ministries know they can ask us."
Other businesses were contacted for comment, but had not responded at time of going to press.
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