TAEJIN FISHERIES IS one of eight finalists for the 2013
Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation
Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
The criteria for judging are by assessing the transnational
(a corporation with 25 percent or more foreign ownership),
that has the most negative impact in each or all of the
following categories:
��� Economic Dominance: monopoly, profiteering, tax
dodging and cultural imperialism
��� People: unemployment, impact on tangata whenua,
impact on women, impact on children, abuse of workers/
conditions, health and safety of workers and the public
��� Environment: environmental damage, abuse of animals
��� Political Interference: interference in democratic
processes, running an ideological crusade.
Taejin Fisheries, the South Korean fishing company
operating the trawlers Melilla 201 and Melilla 203 in
New Zealand waters is chartered by New Zealand��� United
Fisheries Ltd and hires Indonesian crews.
The extremely detailed and referenced nomination
itemised the underpayment and non-payment of wages,
plus inhumane working conditions and abuse.
UFL Charters Ltd was also nominated for the Accomplice
Award ���for continuing to charter Taejin vessels despite
Taejin���s non-payment of wages and revelations of debt
bondage in their supply chain���. Immigration New Zealand
was also nominated for the Accomplice Award ���for
continuing to grant visas for Taejin crews despite Taejin���s
numerous breaches of the Code of Practice; for continuing
to allow United Fisheries to use foreign charter vessels���.
The other nominees for the Roger Awards are: the
Australian-owned banks (ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, collectively), British American Tobacco, Insurance Australia
Group, King Salmon, Newmont Waihi Gold, Rio Tinto
Alcan NZ Ltd/NZ Aluminium Smelters Ltd and Vodafone.
The winners will be announced at a Wellington event on
May 1, 2013.
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VIP.S92
���ROGER��� AWARD
NOMINEES: TAEJIN FISHERIES
Lifejackets needed ��� especially
on small boats
Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf on January 12, 2013, but none
of the four people aboard a boat were wearing them. Coastguard
say they were lucky that a member of the public helped them and
they all were safe by the time the Coastguard vessel arrived.
The incident followed the fatal capsize of a boat in the Firth
of Thames two days earlier, when three survivors were rescued
after more than 20 hours in the water with one man was near
to death. The body of an eleven-year-old boy has still not been
found. Coastguard say they cannot stress enough the importance
of not just taking lifejackets on a boat, but of wearing them, and
that this is particularly important on smaller boats.
Coastguard Operations Manager Ray Burge says the high
winds would have made for a choppy sea, ���They were found
halfway between the Coromandel and Waiheke Island. It���s a
place you don���t really want to be in the water in. With lifejackets
your chances are about 36 hours of survival, and it would
probably go down to a third of that without a lifejacket.���
VIP.S69
THERE WERE LIFEJACKETS aboard a boat that capsized near
March/April 2013 Professional Skipper 41
