The American Samoa Governor, Togiola Tulafono, has criticised the StarKist company for planning to lay off up to 800 workers and questions whether the company itself has reduced the salaries of top employees.
Togiola says if these employees got bonuses, he would like to know if the bonuses were suspended as part of the company's overall cost cutting measures.
He says these are issues the company should have addressed before laying off workers in American Samoa on the minimum wage.
Togiola says he is sending a letter to StarKist to ask for an explanation on why the lay-offs are happening.
