Labor sanctions Rota Mayor Inos

The Department of Labor has sanctioned Rota Mayor Joseph S. Inos for failing to maintain adequate time and payroll records for his former farmer.

Labor Administrative Hearing Officer Jerry Cody ordered Inos to pay a $1,000 fine to the CNMI Treasury.

Cody also found Inos liable to pay the worker, Abu Taher, $2,800 in unpaid wages for the period from August 1999 through May 2000.

Cody also directed the mayor to pay Taher $2,800 in liquidated damages and $66.40 as reimbursement for his medical expenses.

The hearing officer awarded Taher attorney’s fees and costs.

Taher, though attorney Joe Hill, filed his labor complaint in August 2000 , according to Labor records. The Labor Division investigated the case and issued a determination in September 2001.

During the next years, the parties’ counsel informed the hearing officer that they were negotiating a possible settlement.

As of mid-2007, counsel reported they were still engaged in settlement discussions. In November 2007, the counsel informed the hearing officer that they wanted to proceed with the hearing.

The hearing was held in January 2008.

Taher alleged that he worked for Inos on Rota from March 1988 through May 2000. He stopped working at the end of the permit period in May 2000 and then moved to Saipan.

In August 2000, Taher filed the labor complaint, alleging unpaid wages, breach of contract, unpaid medical expenses, failure to provide a copy of the employment contract, and repatriation costs.

The complainant alleged that he worked as a farmer at the respondent’s farm, but that Inos also required him at times to work at other locations on non-farming duties such as house painting, car washing, and bush-cutting.

He alleged that Inos paid him $300 per month in his first six months, but did not pay him at all for the last 20 months that he worked.

Taher claimed that the total wages owed for work he performed from March 1, 1998, to May 20, 2000, amount to $24,084.

Inos contended that he employed Taher full-time as a farmer during the permitted period from May 1999 to May 2000, but denied he ever assigned him to do non-farming jobs. Inos claimed he paid Taher $300 in cash every month from May 1999 until May 2000.

Inos produced no payroll records. He explained that all records were destroyed during a typhoon on Rota in 2000 or 2001.

In his order, Cody said the testimony of Taher that he was never paid any wages during the entire contract period is accepted as factual and credible.

Cody said Taher gave credible testimony that Inos sometimes assigned him to do “non-farming work.”

Cody noted that most of the non-farming activities described by the complainant allegedly occurred in the period prior to August 1999 and thus, “are barred by the statute of limitations.”