WHEN LABOR OMBUDSMAN’S OFFICE CLOSES

Workers with wage issues and labor concerns should go to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division for assistance amid the scheduled Sept. 30 closure of the Federal Labor Ombudsman’s Office, U.S. Labor Assistant District Director for Guam and the CNMI Patrick Candoleta told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Candoleta conceded that not too many workers in the CNMI know the presence of the U.S. Labor’s Wage and Hour Division office on Saipan and they now want to make their presence more widely felt, especially with the ombudsman’s office closing.

However, he has yet to meet with U.S. Department of the Interior officials on the matter.

“Once we meet with them and we have a better understanding of what our office can do to ease the closure of that office, and to maybe make employees aware that we exist and that if they have a wage issue, that they know who to call, we will be letting the public know,” Candoleta said in an interview after a presentation for the NMI Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management on the final rule on the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Acting Interior assistant secretary Eileen Sobeck, who is currently on Saipan, said she’s meeting with agencies that the ombudsman’s office works with on a regular basis in preparation for the latter’s closure. Those agencies include the U.S. Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

“As I was made aware by my staff here on the ground, not many employees know that we’re here and not many employees know that they can come to us directly without first going through the ombudsman’s office if they have any wage complaint issues that we can help them with. As soon as we meet with the Interior officials we want to make sure that we inform the public and let them know this is our plan moving forward,” Candoleta said.

Since 1999, the ombudsman’s office has helped refer to CNMI and federal agencies thousands of foreign workers who were victims of labor abuses, human trafficking, sex trafficking, illegal recruitment, wage theft, contract violations, rape, assault and battery, false imprisonment and torture, among other things.

U.S. Labor’s Wage and Hour Division could pick up the slack for the ombudsman’s office but there are limitations on the assistance that the division could provide.

For example, only most of those employed by employers making $500,000 or more a year can be assisted when they are not paid the federal minimum wage and not paid overtime under the Federal Labor Standards Act.

“Or if it’s a small employer but the employees are engaged in activity of commerce, in other words retail establishment that processes credit cards or preparing goods for shipment off island, then we can cover them individually even if the employer is not covered,” Candoleta said.

Candoleta said the most important thing is to “make sure that employees know that they can come to us.”

“If we’re not able to help them, either they are not covered or if it’s something outside of our jurisdiction, we will let them know that. But we want to make sure that many employees know that we are here and they can come to us and we will make that determination. We don’t want employees to be afraid or shy [to come to us],” he said.

Right now, the division and the ombudsman’s office “complement” each other, Candoleta said.

Moreover, Candoleta said the division has a Mandarin-speaking investigator on Saipan and has two Filipino/Tagalog-speaking staff in Guam that stand ready to assist workers in the CNMI if needed.

Candoleta said the division also has a “very good working relationship” with the Philippine Consulate General in Guam, which now has oversight over Guam and the CNMI.

“So what we plan to do is come with them out here when they do their consular services, to be with them so that we will be able to let the Filipino community know that we’re here, we exist, and what their rights are under the FLSA,” he added.

The U.S. Labor’s Wage and Hour Division office is located at Suite 205 of the Marina Heights Building in Puerto Rico, next door to the ombudsman’s office.

Candoleta was the guest speaker at the SHRM’s July general membership meeting yesterday at Fiesta Resort & Spa in Garapan.

His presentation centered on the final Family and Medical Leave Act rule that went into effect for all U.S. employers on March 8, 2013.

The FMLA provides eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave a year, and requires group health benefits to be maintained during the leave as if employees continued to work instead of taking leave.

The FMLA also provides certain military family leave entitlements. Eligible employees may take FMLA leave for specified reasons related to certain military deployments of their family members. They may also take up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave in a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness.

More information about the FMLA is available at www.dol.gov/whd or www.wagehour.dol.gov.

Carmen Benavente, a human resources clerk with Joeten Enterprises Inc., said Candoleta’s presentation provided a wealth of information about the FMLA.

“The new ones I learned today include coverage of some veterans under the FMLA, and that employees can take the FMLA leave intermittently or in increments,” Benavente told Saipan Tribune when asked for comment.

Josephine Mesta, Hyatt Regency Saipan’s human resource director, separately said that Hyatt is “pretty much on top of it; we’re familiar with the FMLA and the final rule.”

“But this presentation is helpful for all employers, especially those who are not familiar yet with the final rule,” she said.

The FMLA final rule includes expanded leave for military service members and airline flight crews, changes to the model certification forms, and updates to the rules for calculating intermittent FMLA leave. They must be complied with immediately.