Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (April 29, 2022) – FCF Co., Ltd. (FCF), together with fishing companies, recruitment agencies, and academic scholar, held focus group & panel discussion on April 29, 2022. During the event, the party continued advocating the importance of social responsibilities, and also centered on the topic of foreign crew members’ salary structure in Distant Water Fishery, hoping to come up with improvement plans that can not only identify root causes in the system, but to provide systematic solutions to enhance social and labor issues in the long run.
The focus group discussed the industry’s challenges and conundrums, best practices, as well as potential approaches to improve distant water fishery labor issues. An extensive list of valued partners and experts joined hands to show their support, including:
- Fishing companies engage in longline and per seine fishing operations;
- Local recruitment agencies;
- Liu Huang Li-Chuan, associate professor of National Chung Cheng University;
- FCF Co., Ltd
Below conclusions were agreed upon among all parties and will be further developed in phases:
- To streamline management system by cross-check International Labour Organization (ILO) forced labour indicators, and to refine hiring process and deposit handling procedure so to be in compliance with international standards.
- Fully conduct orientations and skill training. Also, agencies and vessel owners should have an effective recruitment process in place which can allow them find qualified candidates and to avoid expectation gaps before embarkation.
- FCF team to draft “Crew Member Repatriation Subsidy Scheme” to assist crew members, under valid circumstances, reducing financial burden when early contract termination occurs.
FCF commenced its Social Responsibility Program in 2017, since then FCF has rolled out a series of initiatives to help its partners build their social capabilities, including extensive training, third-party audits, “Worker’s Voice” grievance mechanism, Responsible Recruitment Program and more. Moving forward, FCF will continue to lead the charge with its partners through ongoing engagements, fine-tuning current program based on feedbacks, and expanding the framework by introducing more initiatives to show its commitment in carrying social responsibilities, and to ultimately elevate Taiwan’s image in global distant water fishery industry.
To learn more about FCF’s Social Responsibility Program, please visit: https://fcf.com.tw/sustainability/
