Local
Friday, April 10, 2009

Labor issues new form for transfer alien workers

By Kristi Eaton
Reporter

Foreign workers seeking to transfer jobs will now be required to sign a form, showing they understand they are responsible for repatriation and medical expenses if the previous employer goes out of business during the transfer process.

The Department of Labor issued the new form this week.

The policy is not new, but the agreement is a reminder to workers their former employer may go out of business while they are looking to transfer jobs. If that is the case, the worker must cover any repatriation or medical expenses. Repatriation expenses are only incurred if the worker decides to return to their native country.

“We allow some extra time to transfer in cases where the worker has good prospects for employment in the Commonwealth but has not yet quite completed the employment arrangements,” said DOL Deputy Secretary Jacinta M. Kaipat in a statement. “If a worker asks us for extra time, and there is good reason to give a little extra time, then we want the worker to understand the risk that the former employer might become insolvent. That risk means that the worker may have to meet repatriation and medical expenses for themselves. There might be no former employer there to meet these expenses.”

Labor has had a few instances where an employer, who was responsible for repatriating a worker, went out of business while the worker was attempting to transfer, the statement said. Later, when the worker could not find a job and decided to leave the Commonwealth, there was no employer to pay for repatriation.

“We are not making any different rules,” Kaipat said. “The last employer of record is always responsible for repatriation expenses. We are just explaining the practicalities of our current economic circumstances. When a worker decides to remain in the Commonwealth and transfer to a new employer, then there could be a risk attached to that decision. We do not think the risk is very great, but in the interests of fairness, we just explained our policy about who should bear this risk.”

The policy protects the Commonwealth's taxpayers from any costs associated with repatriated foreign employees, the statement said.

Kaipat said foreign worker groups were consulted about how to allocate the risk.

“The Department has always emphasized that we cannot ask the taxpayers of the Commonwealth to pay for employment risks. The Department does not regard these situations as presenting a significant risk; however, in hard economic times, any risk is important. The documentation that will be required by the Department is similar to documentation as to financial resources required by Immigration,” she said.

Gov. Benigno Fitial said he commends the Department for “implementing a policy to educate workers and reduce financial liabilities to the CNMI government.”

Moreover, Fitial said he appreciates the work Labor has made over the past three years, citing the agency's establishment of a website and automated processing, as well as the department's clearance of a backlog of old labor cases.

“I am especially pleased with our Labor Department's amazing handling of the massive repatriation of garment factory workers after the industry collapsed,” the governor said in the statement. “Labor effectively handled many thousands of labor cases, transfers, and repatriations, which could have easily been a disaster for a less capable Labor Department.”