Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Labor Submits Claims for 213 Ex-Garment Workers

Local
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Department of Labor submitted yesterday to former judge Timothy Bellas, the trustee of the Garment Workers Trust Fund, individual claims on behalf of 213 former garment workers totaling about $700,000.

Deputy Secretary Cinta M. Kaipat said the list of claims was assembled from the information provided by those who registered with the Labor Department at Garapan Park last summer and includes those who registered with the federal ombudsman in the summer of 2007. Kaipat's list includes workers who were employed by garment industry subcontractors.

These subcontractors were “virtually indistinguishable from the main garment factories that they served,” Kaipat said.

Last Friday, Bellas announced that the Garment Workers Trust Fund still has $600,000 available to assist former garment workers who are still on Saipan and are facing hardships. He said the $600,000 is leftover money from the checks distributed to the workers as settlement in the class action against garment factories. “Under the terms of the settlement agreement, it is supposed to go to help workers if we can. If we can't, then it goes to charity,” he said.

In the past two years, Kaipat said, the Labor Department has adjudicated wage claims made by former garment workers whose cases were filed long before the current administration. The adjudication of these claims has made it possible for garment workers to be compensated from the trust fund. Nearly all of the cases on the list submitted by Kaipat were filed in the years 1997 through 2004.

“We expect that our list is reasonably complete,” Kaipat said. The former ombudsman, Jim Benedetto, compiled a list after extensive advertising for unpaid wage claims in local papers in 2007. He turned that list over to the department. Also, the department advertised and held a mass registration in 2008 to assemble claims from the 2007 and prior-year cases that had been completed in Labor's cleanup of old cases.

The trust fund is accepting applications until Aug. 15, 2009 from former garment workers who want to avail of the funding.

Applicants need to send their applications either in Chinese or English to GWTF, P.O. Box 505943, Saipan, MP, 96950. (PR)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Labor Proposes Changes in the Regs

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Local
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Labor wants new changes to employment regulations

By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter

The Department of Labor is again proposing another set of amendments to the current employment rules and regulations.

Labor is seeking public comments in its notice of proposed rules and regulations filed before the Commonwealth Registrar's Office.

According to Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas, the proposed revisions are intended to provide additional opportunities for the employment of U.S. citizens and to advance the phase-out of the moratorium.

In Labor's public notice, San Nicolas said the proposed amendments are also intended to suspend the provisions for periodic exit until the uncertainties of the federalization law are resolved, and to decrease the department's paperwork burdens and make other administrative changes.

According to Labor, the proposed amendments are:

* To broaden the requirement to post job vacancy announcements on the department's website so that job opportunities are made known within the community and to increase the requirements for an exemption from the workforce participation requirement of 20 percent U.S. citizens in order to promote the employment of U.S. citizens;

* To advance the phase-out of the moratorium to July 1, 2009 in order to increase flexibility for local businesses under the current adverse economic circumstances and to suspend the provisions for periodic exit until the uncertainties of the federalization law are resolved so that local businesses are not faced with potentially conflicting requirements;

* To simplify the provisions for part-time employment of foreign national workers in order to decrease the paperwork burdens on local employers;

* To simplify the regulations governing deductions from wages in light of minimum wage hikes;

* To eliminate or simplify certain paperwork burdens on the department and to make minor adjustments in fees;

* To provide guidelines for judicial review of final agency actions.

Comments are due within 30 days from the date of the publication of the notice.

Last October, Labor also filed proposed amendments to the employment rules and regulations.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Labor Bars Employer Who Engaged in Extensive Fraud

Local
Monday, May 18, 2009

Labor bars employer who engaged in extensive fraud

By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter

The Department of Labor has barred an employer from employing alien workers in the CNMI for a two-year period for engaging in extensive fraud in operating his businesses.

Labor Administrative Hearing Officer Jerry Cody referred its order against Soleman (his name and last name) to the Division of Revenue and Taxation.

“The evidence establishes a systematic pattern of fiscal mismanagement, neglect of business by this owner, and extensive fraud with respect to the issuance of sales receipts. Such business practices render any income and expense figures completely unreliable,” Cody said.

As of the date of the Labor hearing on June 3, 2008, Soleman operated a barracks rental, land clearing, charcoal manufacture and sale, and commercial cleaning.

The charcoal business was known as “Dajets Island Charcoal & Lime.”

Cody, however, allowed 10 employees of Soleman to seek new employers. Aalthough it is likely that some of these workers' jobs were mere sponsorships, he said the fact remains that other workers, in fact, produced charcoal for Soleman.

Cody said Labor did not examine individual workers to establish which of them have engaged in sponsorship versus legitimate charcoal manufacture.

“Therefore, the Hearing Officer finds that all workers should be granted transfer relief at this time,” he added.

According to Labor records, Soleman began employing or attempting to hire an increasing number of workers as “charcoal makers” for his charcoal business.

Soleman claimed that his charcoal business-making business was profitable and that he needed all of these workers to maintain and increase the capacity of his land clearing and charcoal businesses.

In April 2008, the Labor director denied a number of transfer applications submitted by Soleman due to failure to comply with a deficiency notice; income not justifying an additional hiring; salary records showed that not all workers are being paid; and suspected sponsorship.

Soleman and the 11 workers appealed.

Cody said that at the hearing, Soleman produced a number of sales receipt books regarding his charcoal sales.

Cody said the Labor director's examination showed that numerous entries in the books had been altered to make it appear that a greater number of bags of charcoal had been delivered and a greater amount of cash had been collected.

To document the fraud, the director obtained affidavits signed by the customers themselves attesting to the actual numbers of charcoal bags they had purchased and the prices they paid.

With respect to tax records, Cody said Soleman admitted under oath that he intentionally falsified the amount of revenue he claimed to have received in an attempt to reduce his tax payments.

Labor processed 22,917 foreign labor permits in 2008

Monday, 18 May 2009 00:00 By Gemma Q. Casas - Variety News Staff
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THE Department of Labor says it processed a total of 22,917 labor permits for foreign workers as of the end of calendar year 2008 but couldn’t say exactly how many of them are still present on the islands as of this month.

Deputy Labor Secretary Jacinta M. Kaipat stressed that the total number of actual foreign workers in the CNMI are typically lower than the permits processed because some of them are contract amendments or extensions or some chose to leave the islands for personal or employment reasons.

“As of Dec. 31, 2008, the department had recorded 22,917 permit transactions during 2008 in the 2406K (foreign worker) immigration category. The department counts only its administrative operations; does not conduct any census of foreign workers actually present in the commonwealth,” Kaipat said in her latest report to the Legislature.

Labor reported that there were just more than 16,000 documented foreign workers in the CNMI as of Sept. 2008.

Kaipat said the department does not anticipate its functions to change dramatically unless the federal government wins over the CNMI’s pending lawsuit challenging the labor-related provisions of the federalization law that mandates the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to take control of the islands’ immigration system starting Nov. 28.

“U.S. Public Law 110-229 will have very limited effect on the functions of the Labor Department unless the federal government wins the current lawsuit brought by the commonwealth. A further report on this will be issued by the department after the court rules,” she said.

It is widely anticipated though that fewer foreign workers’ permits will be processed if the immigration changes take place because many of them will not quality under the U.S. visa requirements for employment.

“It is anticipated that very few foreign workers will qualify under U.S. visa requirements, perhaps fewer than 200 per year. Another change will be the transfer to the United States of the processing of applications to enter the commonwealth,” she said.

“However, these applications have fallen off very substantially in 2008 because of the economic conditions in the commonwealth,” she added.

Labor will assess its manpower and financial needs starting June 1, 2009 in anticipation of the changes on the islands’ immigration system.