San Nicolas: Labor’s policies ‘are sound’

Responding to a House probe into the CNMI Department of Labor’s controversial policies on alien workers, Labor Sec. Gil San Nicolas said the department’s approach is “sound” and “fair” despite the extensive list of concerns two lawmakers sent him earlier this month.

Reps. Tina Sablan (I-Saipan) and Edward Salas (R-Saipan) in an Aug. 8 letter to Labor raised a host of issues linked to the department’s policies, such as problems with administrative orders that go unpaid, fears that officials have violated workers’ due process rights and allegations Deputy Sec. Cinta Kaipat has a bias against foreigners.

In an Aug. 22 letter, San Nicolas addressed each subject the lawmakers put forth, saying Labor’s practices comply with the law and that the department is doing its duty.

“I believe that the department’s policies and procedures are sound, consistent with applicable law, fair to all parties, and of benefit to the community,” San Nicolas wrote.

A key point in the House probe was a so-called “policy shift” the lawmakers cited concerning Labor’s enforcement of unpaid administrative orders—departmental rulings which often require employers to pay back wages or other settlements. Labor has recently begun sending workers with unpaid orders to small claims court rather than deal with them directly, a change Sablan and Salas said suggests it is unable or unwilling to take enforcement action.

However, San Nicolas said Labor’s recent policy change is in accordance with the law and more effective when it comes to gaining payments for workers.

“Enforcement of an order is at the option of the party to whom an award has been made,” he writes. “There is no department enforcement mechanism that automatically comes into operation when an award has been issued.”

The courts have more power to enforce administrative orders than Labor, he adds, as they can seize assets or threaten incarceration if employers refuse to pay the debts they owe.

Sablan and Salas had also pointed to instances where they say Labor’s practices fail to give workers due process. For example, they questioned in their initial letter why it is that when workers appeal the department’s decisions, the officer who first heard the case often reviews those appeals.

Yet this is a common practice in the CNMI’s court system, San Nicolas said, and in other courts throughout the United States. Moreover, any order from a remand hearing can also be appealed to the secretary or taken to court.

Moreover, the letter answers allegations that Deputy Labor Sec. Cinta Kaipat harbors a bias against alien workers. Sablan and Salas had cited several statements by Kaipat that they say suggested a pattern of prejudice. These charges, San Nicolas said, are untrue.

It is “completely unjustified to charge the Deputy Secretary with any kind of bias in the performance of her duties and even more specifically with a bias against foreign national workers,” he wrote. “She does her job in a way that is fair to all concerned; but even [Sablan and Salas] cannot completely ignore the fact even while the department strives to diligently enforce the law, there are some individuals who try to circumvent the law.”

To back this assertion, San Nicolas pointed to a recent news report on two people who recently pleaded guilty in the CNMI to employing an illegal alien worker in a bid to extend the worker’s stay.

“There is absolutely nothing in the record of appeals to the Secretary or appeals to the courts to suggest anything other than a fair and impartial adjudication process free of any bias,” he added.