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21 abandoned workers troop to Labor
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Posted on Mar 17 2006
Twenty-one abandoned construction workers trooped to the Department of Labor yesterday morning after they received information that Labor is expected to resolve their complaints.
Twenty Filipinos and one Chinese, all employees of the defunct Elephant Corp. in Chalan Kanoa, patiently waited outside the Division of Administrative Hearing Office until late afternoon.
When the Saipan Tribune left Labor at 4:50pm, there was no order yet as administrative hearing officer Jerry Cody was still completing the decision.
The workers interviewed by the Saipan Tribune said they went to Labor after they were informed that there will be “something” coming out. They said they don’t have any idea what it was all about.
The workers said their employer, Kim Jai Hyun, did not pay them from two to three months before fleeing to South Korea on Nov. 27, 2005.
Except for two of them, all workers have been able to get temporary employment at different construction companies.
One of the workers, a mason, said he was not able to send money to his mother for six months.
Bernardo Panalagaw Jr., a painter, said he was not able to send money to his wife and three children also for about six months. His mother supported his family, who transferred from one house to another because of their failure to pay rent, Panalagaw said.
Another worker said their other problem now is how to pay their electric bills with the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. All workers are renting a barracks used to be owned by their former employer.
A worker who started work at Elephant in 1988 recalled that the company began operation in 1984. He said the company was doing good until they noticed that their employer somehow “changed” in 2000.
“We received information that he brought all the money to Korea when he received payments,” one worker said.
The workers, however, are proud that they are the ones constructing many commercial buildings on Saipan such as the one occupied by Wells Fargo, New SM Store, 99 Cents, San Jose Mart, Yona Driving Range, and other buildings in Kagman.
