IOT opens residential building, inaugurates project CITADEL |29 November 2019

A partial view of the residential building from the outside (Photos: Patrick Joubert/IOT)

Expatriate workers of the Indian Ocean Tuna will now benefit from their own residential building which officially opened its doors yesterday at lle du Port.

The 530-room apartment is already home to 430 employees who have already moved in. They include Malagasies, Filipinos, and Taiwanese among other nationalities.

In his opening remarks, Sven Massen, Thai Union Europe supply chain operations director, said the “hotel is a great investment of Thai Union”.

“Many of the houses that were leased by Indian Ocean Tuna (IOT) for its expatriate workers were in need of reparation and this project was discussed for a long time,” said Mr Massen.

He added that the building meets all ethical standards for housing including training room for workers. He noted that the apartment complex is also sustainable as it is equipped with solar panels.

As for Employment, Immigration and Civil Status Minister Myriam Télémaque, she said that IOT has come a long way since its opening and today it has a workforce of 1,433, it makes sense therefore for such an investment to ensure that the workers are in comfort while they are working in order to bring the company forward in its development.

“IOT serves as an example for all companies to follow suit so that they also can ensure that the welfare of their non-Seychellois workers is acceptable,” said Minister Télémaque.

She added that the ministry has made provisions in the new labour migration policy were it states that employers must identify conducive housing for migrant workers and the terms must be stated in the contract.

Yesterday also saw the opening of the IOT cold chain improvement tuna automated delivery extended layout or CITADEL at the IOT dock shipping port. The project includes the renewal of the seven cold rooms to improve their capacity, and to improve the way to receive fish.

On his part, IOT general manager Nichol Elizabeth noted that both projects are big investments for Thai Union costing 16.5 million euros.

“We wanted to uphold a better standard of living for our workers as well as having them close to the factory,” said Mr Elizabeth.

He noted that the CITADEL project is the biggest investment that they have ever done in Seychelles costing 11.5 million euros.

“This project will help us make sure that IOT is always stable when it comes to fish by adding capacity and making sure that we unload fishing boats much faster,” Mr Elizabeth added.

Christophe Zialor