Labor official pleased with contractor’s swift action

Labor Enforcement Division director Gil M. San Nicolas is pleased with the quick response of Sino Great Wall International Engineering Co., Ltd. in settling its obligation to its workers early this month.

Close to 200 laborers employed by Sino Great Wall, one of the sub-contractors working on Imperial Pacific’s multi-million dollar casino hotel, protested after allegedly not getting paid their wages and allowances.

San Nicolas said he and other local labor officials immediately looked into the situation with Sino Great Wall, led by project manager and senior engineer Hou Jianlong, who cooperated with their investigation. He and Jeffrey Camacho, a senior investigator in the division, and other local labor officials investigated the case.

“On the same day we learned about it, we looked into it. [Sino Great Wall officials] cooperated to address our main concern of making sure the employees are paid. We called both parties in and met with them. The bottom line is everyone got paid,” San Nicolas told Saipan Tribune.

“They [Sino Great Wall officials] immediately came to our office and met with us. Mr. Huo came here voluntarily after Jeff called him up and he came here to explain the situation. We sat down and talked on how to quickly settle the matter. We resolved the issue [and] the workers got paid their wages and allowances.”

San Nicolas said that he, Camacho, and another investigator closely monitored the events from the time they met the protesters until they received their wages.

“We’re aware of it and they got paid. [Huo] wrote a check for the amount and we monitored the payroll of the remaining employees. And when they received their money, some of them received cash vouchers.”

“They [Sino Great Wall] were very cooperative,” San Nicolas added.

He said that Huo told them the workers’ salaries were delayed due to the late transmission of the money to their bank. “It was just a delay and that’s what they said. Since we learned that there was a protest we monitored the situation and see what’s going on. We called Mr. Huo and also informed the United States [Department of] Labor.”

“We also made sure that we communicate with U.S. Labor and we know that they are also following the events. Since the beginning we’re communicating with Dean Tenorio of U.S. Labor like we all do with other major issues regarding wages and other issues. We just gave them [U.S. Labor] the same information on what transpired at the meeting as part of our good working relationship with them.”

Documents provided by Sino Great Wall to Saipan Tribune showed that they paid 185 workers a total of $1,338,032.03 in salaries and other allowances since July 2016. They paid $1,240,314.03 in wages and $86,700 in cash vouchers. All of their workers stayed at Heaven II apartments provided by IPI while Sino Great Wall took care of their meals.