The Governor’s Cash Assistance Program for employees who were either furloughed or had their hours cut when American Samoa went into Code red lockdown, after the first community transmission of COVID in February, began receiving checks last week.
Employees of StarKist Samoa were issued the first checks at the cannery, Friday.
The program is administered by the Department of Human Resources and in the case of StarKist Samoa, DHR Director Lynn Pulou Alaimalo responded favorably to a request that the cannery handle their workforce’s applications as a group rather than each individual apply with DHR.
The cannery was shut down for three weeks during Code Red, cutting off wages for the nearly 2000 workers. Guest workers are also eligible for the assistance. The minimum check amount is $240 per week.
This is not the same as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (FPUA) for which American Samoa was awarded $16 million. For that program only US nationals, citizens and US permanent residents with green cards qualified.
The biggest number of workers who were without paychecks in the private sector however were ineligible, not having US green cards. The Governor ‘s CAP was designed to help all those who were not receiving paychecks or receiving just partial. The assistance covers the period from February 22nd to April 18th when Code Red was in effect.
Some employees who work for prohibited businesses such as movie theaters and barber shops were without paychecks from February 21st until the newest emergency declaration for COVID, which went into effect last Saturday.
