Prudence Tekurade is a woman on a mission. The 28-year-old mother of three saved enough from her job at SolTuna, the Solomon Islands’ only tuna processing plant, to buy a plot of land. Now she’s putting money away to build a house that she plans to rent for extra income.
But Tekurade wasn’t always so thrifty. Spending, not saving, was her habit. “When I got my pay, I just took the money,” she says. “I finished all the money. I never had any savings. Now I keep my savings in the bank.”
Tekurade’s former attitude toward her earnings used to be common among the women who work at SolTuna, one of the island’s largest private employers. Women comprise two-thirds of the workforce and, until recently, many had already spent their money by the time payday came around. Some would skip their shifts at SolTuna and head to the market to sell fish, produce, or other goods to earn quick cash and put food on the table.
SolTuna’s high rate of absenteeism—18 percent—took a toll, says the company’s plant operations manager, Suzy Aquino. “On Mondays it was a very poor turnout,” she says. “On Tuesdays, it was better, and then on Wednesdays and Thursdays we were at our peak. The numbers went down again on Fridays.”
The fewer women showed up to work, the less fish SolTuna could process. Production targets were nearly impossible to hit. This, combined with high energy and shipping costs, made it hard for the company to compete with tuna processors in Thailand and the Philippines. That was impacting the company’s bottom line.
After providing a $10 million loan to SolTuna—to help it upgrade and expand its processing capacity—IFC worked with the company to raise its environmental and social standards, which included tackling the absenteeism issue.
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