Labor orders Elephant Corp. to pay another guest worker

A corporation that was earlier found by the Department of Labor liable to pay a total of $307,142 in unpaid and contractual wages plus damages to 22 abandoned construction workers, was ordered to pay $15,126 to another guest worker who was hired but not given a job.

Labor Administrative Hearing Officer Herbert Soll ordered Elephant Corp. and its president Jai Hyun Kim to pay Hongyan Shen $5,368 in contract wages.

Soll directed Elephant Corp. and Kim to pay another $5,368 in liquidated damages “for their willful abuse of their legal obligations under the law and the contract.”

Soll ordered respondents Elephant Corp. and Kim to repay Shen $4,400, which was paid to them by Jianchun Zhuang on behalf of Shen.

The hearing officer said such payment was an illegal charge for employment and an illegal charge for processing the employment contract.

He found the complainant eligible for transfer relief if she has filed on her behalf an application for a non-resident workers permit within 45 days.

Soll also sanctioned the respondents each in the amount of $2,000 and disqualified them from employing non-resident workers in the CNMI until all wages, reimbursements, and sanctions are paid.

He said the surety bond of the Traders Insurance Underwriters shall be utilized to satisfy wage obligations if the respondents do not satisfy the terms of this order within 30 days.

According to Labor records, Zhuang is a nonresident worker in the CNMI. He wanted to have his wife, Shen, with him on Saipan.

Chenggong Wang, a fellow employee of Zhuang at a garment factory, told Zhuang that he knew of a commercial cleaner’s job and could arrange for Shen to be hired.

For arranging the job and for processing necessary papers, Wang asked for and received $4,400 from Zhuang.

Elephant Corp. and Kim processed a contract to employ Shen, who then arrived on Saipan on Nov. 10, 2004.

Shen reported to Elephant Corp. to begin work, but the corporation or Kim did not give her work.

When a complaint was finally filed with Labor, Kim was served with a notice to appear for investigation. He departed from the CNMI before the investigative session.

When the complaint was filed, Wang had already departed from the CNMI and service was never perfected to include him in this case. Claims against Wang will be left for such time that jurisdiction can be established, Labor said.

In his order, Soll found evidence to support the claim that Elephant Corp. and Kim employed Wang to secure payment from the complainant for the contract that Elephant extended to the complainant.

Wang was not an employee of Elephant and such service was a violation of the law, Soll said.

“Elephant and Kim failed to provide work and to pay wages to the complainant in violation of the terms of the contract and the applicable provisions of law,” he pointed out.