Previous Story
Garment oversight board awaiting recommendations
|
Posted on Feb 24 2005
The Garment Oversight Board is waiting for the recommendation of a private contractor tasked to inspect and monitor local garment factories’ compliance with a court-approved settlement agreement that ended a class action suit against them nearly two years ago.
GOB chair Timothy Bellas said the board would come out with determinations soon after receiving the recommendations from Veritae.
The monitoring not only covers La Mode Inc., which is being accused by nearly 100 workers of alleged nonpayment of wages, but also other garment firms.
The board has the power to place a garment manufacturer on probation. That temporarily suspends the manufacturer from accepting orders from apparel retailers that are part of the settlement agreement, which was approved by Saipan’s federal court in May 2003.
The GOB regularly conducts inspections on garment firms’ facilities and those of their subcontractors to ensure compliance with some 59 standards set by the settlement agreement in several aspects of their operations, including occupational safety, as well as workers’ living conditions and wages.
The oversight board came to existence when U.S. District Court Chief Judge Alex R. Munson approved the $20-million settlement agreement in consolidated class action suits. The settlement earmarked $4 million as monitoring fund to prevent the harm previously caused by the industry to the workers.
Meanwhile, Consolidated Transportation Services Inc. filed with the Superior Court a civil action against Mariana Fashions Inc. over alleged nonpayment of freight services. Mariana Fashions is reportedly shutting down its operations, laying off about a hundred workers.
In a complaint, CTSI attorney Colin M. Thompson said that Mariana Fashions owe his client some $26,947.04 as outstanding balance on the cost of freight services. According to the lawyer, the garment firm failed to settle the unpaid balance despite demand. He asked the court to compel the garment factory to pay CTSI.
