Panel OKs removal of mandatory benefits for alien workers

A proposal to remove mandatory requirement among employers to pay 100 percent of their foreign workers’ medical insurance came a step closer to reality after a House panel recommended its passage long before holding a public hearing on it yesterday. The committee also heard comments only from the Department of Labor on a bill earlier described by worker groups as “inhumane.”

That second bill, House Bill 17-234, requires alien registration, allows employers to directly cut up to 25 percent from foreign workers’ salaries and publication of their names in newspapers to pay for past due hospital bills, and supposedly to “create” the CNMI Department of Labor through legislation.

The House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations is recommending passage of House Bill 17-147, which makes its “optional” and “voluntary” for employers to carry medical insurance for each alien worker they employ.

HB 17-147, authored by former representative Diego Benavente, could be acted on during the House’s next session.

Rep. Ralph Demapan’s (Cov-Saipan) JGO Committee said that foreign workers can now afford to pay for their own medical insurance because their minimum wage has been increasing as a result of a 2007 U.S. law.

From $3.05 an hour, the CNMI’s minimum wage increased by 66 percent to $5.05 an hour and will further increase until it reaches the federal wage floor of $7.25 an hour.

The panel said that making medical insurance coverage for alien workers an option for employers “will also create fairness for all employees within the Commonwealth, nonresident and resident workers alike.”

“The Committee finds it reasonable that House Bill 17-147 be passed by the House. The Committee further notes that the classification of nonresident workers will no longer be in existence come November 2011, as the federalization of the Commonwealth’s immigration and border control takes full effect,” the panel added.

Three CNMI Department of Labor officials led by Alfred Pangelinan, director of the Division of Employment Services, agreed with the JGO Committee that HB 17-147 promotes fairness and equality among all workers regardless of nationality.

Pangelinan, in commenting on both HB 17-147 and HB 17-234, said there are some 6,000 eligible U.S. workers that are currently unemployed and many of them cannot find jobs because the positions they are qualified for are either held by foreign workers or have inflated qualifications.

Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan), for his part, said he is not proud that there are 6,000 unemployed yet qualified U.S. workers when there have been some 12,000 foreign workers being applied for a Commonwealth-only worker, or CW, status.

‘Inhumane bill’

Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement-NMI, reiterated yesterday that the Legislature should not pass HB 17-234 because it is “inhumane” and will eventually harm the economy.

“I also repeat my request to lawmakers that instead of making it more difficult for workers to survive, they should work on reviving the economy. A lot of employers and employees are already confused about labor and immigration matters, and this kind of bill makes matters worse,” Syed told Saipan Tribune.

Just like HB 17-147, Rep. Froilan Tenorio’s (Cov-Saipan) HB 17-234 no longer require employers to pay for their alien workers’ medical expenses.

Tenorio, during yesterday’s public hearing, said he introduced the bill at the request of the Fitial administration, and has yet to fully digest its contents. Tenorio was initially concerned about the bill’s provisions but had a change of heart yesterday upon hearing from CNMI Labor and his colleagues in the House.

Tenorio’s bill repeals both Public Law 15-108 or the Commonwealth Employment Act of 2007 and P.L. 17-1 or the Immigration Conformity Act of 2010.

Demapan said the JGO Committee is now finalizing its report on the bill and gave CNMI Labor a week to come up with an official position paper on it.

Syed said the JGO Committee should get comments not only from CNMI Labor but all other members of the public as well, including the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and workers’ groups.

Richard Pierce, executive director of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, said in an email that he earlier “sent a laundry list of all that’s wrong” with the bill that he fears will create a “draconian nightmare.” He said even the bill’s analysis anticipates legal challenges.

The Chamber has yet to officially comment on the bill.

During yesterday’s public hearing, neither lawmakers nor CNMI Labor officials brought up the bill’s provision that Syed and other workers said makes employers the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s “collection agency.”

The bill allows employers to deduct up to 25 percent from their alien workers’ wages and publications of their names in the newspapers for past due medical bills.

Labor’s Pangelinan later said he does not want to comment yet on this provision.

Syed pointed out that the CNMI government didn’t take the initiative to collect from employers over $6.1 million in unpaid wages of alien workers, but now “forces” foreign workers to set aside 25 percent of their paycheck to pay medical bills at a time when lawmakers no longer require employers to pay for their foreign workers’ medical insurance.

CHC will also be required to publish a notice in an English-language newspaper in the CNMI the name and any other necessary identification information of any person who fails for more 30 days to pay the full amount due “under any invoice issued by the [CHC].”

Alien registration

Tenorio’s bill, co-authored by Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) and Rep. Fred Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan) also requires alien registration by the CNMI Department of Labor, but only if the federal government fails to do so.

Human rights advocate and former Rota teacher Wendy Doromal has been saying that alien registration is an “immigration” matter and should therefore be left with the federal government.

Under the bill, aliens who fail to register could face jail time of up to 90 days, fined up to $500, or both.

A section-by-section analysis of the bill says it’s necessary to repeal existing labor legislation and replace it with a new law because Public Law 15-108 or Commonwealth Act of 2007 was enacted to reform the guest worker program prior to federalization when it was still unclear whether any federal bill would be enacted or what it would contain.

Second, P.L. 17-1 or the Immigration Conformity Act of 2010 was enacted after federalization, primarily to take all of the immigration provisions out of the Commonwealth Code.

This law also made changes to the labor law to govern the interim period before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services promulgated its final worker rule for the transition period and while the CNMI’s interim umbrella permit program was still in place.

The bill also allows the CNMI Labor secretary to set fees to recover the cost of services rendered by the department to the public.

Also present at the public hearing were CNMI Labor’s Barbara T. Sablan and James Ulloa. Also in the gallery was U.S. Labor Ombudsman Pamela Brown, who was seen taking notes but did not comment on the labor bills discussed.

Among the House members present besides Demapan, Tenorio and Palacios were Rep. Tony Sablan (R-Saipan), Rep. Teresita Santos (Ind-Rota), Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan), and Vice Speaker Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan).