Salas told to stop ‘political posturing’

Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan on Friday lashed back at Labor deputy secretary Andrew Salas, accusing the Labor official of “political posturing” on the issue of the new alien labor rules and regulations.

Sablan, a member of the task force that drafted the new labor regulations, was reacting to Salas’ earlier statement that the task force was “misinformed” by producing rules that would benefit only guest workers. Salas, who was also part of the task force, said he did not attend the group’s meetings because he did not believe in the philosophy of the task force, particularly on the multiple jobs rule and the employment transfer processes.

“I am dumbfounded by Mr. Salas’ statements. They have no justifications whatsoever. He had ample amount of time—and as deputy secretary of the Department of Labor, more power—to raise his concerns. But instead, he chose not to attend the task force meetings, and now comes out criticizing everything that has been agreed upon,” Sablan said. “Mr. Salas needs to stop politically posturing about these regulations. It is he who is misinformed about these rules, not the task force.”

Sablan aired some concerns about the new regulations, particularly the introduction of new fees and implementation of increases in various existing labor processing fees.

But he expressed appreciation of Labor secretary Joaquin Tenorio’s move to include various government agencies and private groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and the Society of Human Resource Management, in the task force.

“If Mr. Salas attended the meetings, he would have been able to share his own thoughts with the task force. But he chose not to. I saw him attend a meeting once, but after 15 minutes, he left. Now, he is saying he is not happy with the result of the discussions,” Sablan said.

Contrary to Salas’ claims, the new regulations aim to protect not just the nonresident workers, but also the government, the resident workers and the CNMI taxpayers, Sablan added.

He stressed that the task force had nothing to do with the decision to allow guest workers to engage in multiple jobs, as the settlement agreement in the Bonifacio Sagana court case bound the government to implement this policy.

On Salas’ call for the abolition of employment transfers and temporary work authorization for guest workers involved in labor disputes, Sablan said, “[Salas] needs to understand what due process is.”

He added that to begin with, the reason TWAs have to be issued is the delayed resolution of labor complaints filed by workers.

“Mr. Salas should be asking the Legislature and the administration to provide more human resources for the Labor Department, so it can handle the complaints,” Sablan said. “[And as a top official at Labor], he should ensure that no employers are violating under his watch the rights of their employees so we won’t see scores of complaints being filed. The workers, after all, are the backbone of this economy ”

Further, Sablan invited Salas back to the discussion table for the formulation of an omnibus code for nonresident workers.

“The task force is now forming a comprehensive set of labor regulations that will satisfy all the concerns that are coming across. We hope Mr. Salas can join us,” Sablan said.