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Hotel fights discrimination suit
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Posted on Dec 07 1998
The Saipan Grand Hotel has asked the court to order the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to drop its discrimination investigation over the CNMI-mandated health checks.
The hotel was thrust into a legal fight after an employee brought a lawsuit, claiming that a health-screening regulation for foreign workers was discriminatory.
The suit referred to the yearly health tests for tuberculosis and sex-related diseases that the Department of Public Health implements for contract workers.
The tests were grounded on the assumption that the spread of contagious diseases would be curtailed if foreign workers were health-screened.
The hotel said the EEOC action was misdirected because it undertook the tests out of compliance with the CNMI regulation. It said the U.S. Department of Justice ought to bring action against the CNMI for implementing the tests in the first place.
The now-apparent conflict between the health regulation and the American Disabilities Act came to light after Alisandro Angeles, a gardener of the hotel for eight years, charged the hotel with discrimination for singling out foreign workers for the tests.
Angeles brought the lawsuit after his job contract was terminated in a retrenchment.
The EEOC obtained a writ, requiring the hotel to reinstate Angeles while an investigation into the alleged discrimination continues.
The hotel, in a countersuit, said it was left with no option but to adhere to the health regulation because non-compliance would mean losing the privilege to hire foreign workers.
The tests were made a condition to renew job contracts.
