The Texas-based company that was in the territory last month to hire local employees for clients across the United States, Practical Employee Solutions Inc., says that their plans to hire 100 plus workers didn’t pan out due to Hawaiian Air’s flight changes.
Ashley Sherman, Account Manager for the company says they were only able to hire less than 40 workers because Hawaiian Air had not updated their website to show the recent flight changes for their Honolulu-Pago Pago flights.
She said for weeks the reservations system showed no available seats.
The company rep said they were able to book only 36 workers to leave on this morning’s flight to Honolulu and the group had very little notice as “Hawaiian Air slowly released the seats.”
Sherman said, “It was extremely disappointing for us as the employers were so excited to offer the jobs but we simply could not find seats in time before the American Samoa Certificates of Identity expired. ”
The CIS for US nationals from American Samoa are good for six months and after May 6th the Transportation Security Administration would not accept the group’s CIs so any candidates would have to obtain a passport to travel.
Other than the group that’s leaving this morning, the only other hires by the company were three female workers who left last month. They are now working for a boutique hotel in Kiawah island , South Carolina.
Jobs being offered to local hires were entry level positions in landscaping and hospitality.
This includes cooks, housekeepers, landscapers and front desk agents in hotels all over the continental United States.
Sherman told KHJ News in an interview during their recruiting mission that most of the applicants were recent high school graduates without prior experience.
She said employers offered job training and these are skills that the employees would bring back home upon their return.
The local hires could work until October or November and return home then go back in March or April to work for another 7-9 months.
The company rep was disappointed that they couldn’t offer more jobs to locals due to the limited seat availability between April 23 and May 4 on Hawaiian Air.
She said,” I can’t imagine every seat on each flight during this time was full but the agents I worked with from Hawaiian assured there were no seats available.”
Meanwhile, when asked about Hawaiian Air’s response to complaints from local travelers, the governor’s Executive Assistant Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said the airline has adjusted its reservations system to reflect the new flight changes.
“Moreover, Hawaiian had provided assistance to stranded passengers due to onward flight disruptions,” said Iulogologo.
He added that with the system correction and media awareness campaign, Hawaiian Air is confident that complaints will subside.
