Kaipat sets Sept. deadline for bond claims hearings

Local
Thursday, July 23, 2009


By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter

Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta Kaipat yesterday vowed to complete by September 2009 the hearings on bond claims filed by alien workers who have unpaid Labor awards.

“Our process for dealing with all of these old bonding claims is quite efficient, and we anticipate that the entire task will be completed this fall,” said Kaipat in her interim progress report on the implementation of Public Law 15-108 or the new labor reform law that she authored when she was a Representative.

Kaipat said they expect that the bonding companies may appeal adverse decisions on these old bonding claims to the Labor secretary.

“Those appeals will be decided promptly,” the Deputy Secretary said.

She said it is also likely that any adverse decisions by the Secretary will be appealed to the Superior Court.

Kaipat said the court has enforcement powers that Labor does not have so they expect that most of the contested cases will be decided in court.

“It was for this reason that the Department took the position that contested bonding claims should be resolved in the court in the first instance,” she said.

In June last year, Labor encouraged alien workers to collect their administrative awards by filing small claims in the Superior Court.

Labor recently notified those alien workers with administrative awards to come in to the Labor Hearing Office to register their bond claims.

Kaipat earlier admitted that Labor was required to change its practices because of Superior Court associate judge Perry B. Inos's ruling pertaining to bond issue.

Kaipat, however, stated that due to some reasons many foreign workers will still be referred to small claims court as Labor has been doing in the past.

Last March, Inos ruled that Labor has exclusive jurisdiction over alien workers attempting to collect on labor bonds and that the courts do not have the authority to enforce these bonds.

Inos dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the consolidated small claims filed by 11 Chinese workers against two bonding companies.

The issue stems from a Labor advice for alien workers to file small claims in the Superior Court to recover the awards granted them by Labor against their employers.

Inos noted that the primary reason the workers are unable to recover the awards granted them by Labor is because Labor has thus far not attempted to enforce the insurance companies' obligations under the labor bonds.

In her interim report submitted yesterday to the Legislature, Kaipat said after Judge Inos issued the ruling holding that Labor must adjudicate bonding claims, they organized to get this work done.

Labor divided the potential bonding claims in four categories: labor and agency cases decided in 2008; cases collected by the federal ombudsman decided in 2007 and 2006; cases collected by the federal ombudsman decided in 2005 and prior years; and all other cases.

Labor already published notices in the English and Chinese press with respect to cases in the first three groups. Labor is planning to publish the final notice covering all remaining cases by the end of this month.

Kaipat said because of large-scale business closures and failures in 2005-2007, there are a considerable number of bonding claims from cases completed in those years.

“We will not know the total number until our last notice is published and the last date for registering claims (Aug. 20, 2009) has passed,” she said.

To conduct hearings on the bond claims, Labor shifted some personnel around temporarily.

Kaipat said former Labor Director Barry Hirshbein went back to his former post as administrative hearing officer to help out with the bonding cases.

Kaipat said they have also put other staff members in the Hearing Office temporarily to help with handling case records and other tasks “so that we can get this work done promptly.”

She said the first 183 labor cases decided in 2008 yielded only nine bond claims.

Kaipat said there are few bonding claims arising out of new cases because Labor mediates almost all complaints within 15 days of filing and hearings were done within 90 days of filing.

“Resolving cases promptly means that employers have not become bankrupt or disappeared before the case is resolved, leaving the bonding claim as the only revenue for payment,” she added.