There’s no stopping the benefits law now

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio said yesterday that regulations that would implement a law providing additional compensation to local residents are now ready.

But the governor said residents would have to wait for another two to three months before they could receive the benefits intended for employees whose hourly wages are still below the US minimum of $5.15.

The other day Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark D. Zachares and acting Attorney General Maya Kara signed the guidelines that would give flesh to the fair compensation act. The regulations will be published in the Commonwealth Registry to solicit comments from the public.

Details of the implementing regulations were not provided to the media.

Businessmen have been pushing for the deferment of the implementation in fear the law would further hurt their pockets at this time of economic difficulties.

Local workers, on the other hand, complain of not receiving the benefits in their last pay checks, saying the law became effective after it was signed by the governor. The measure did not mention that it requires some kind of an implementing guideline.

Last month Tenorio approved the legislation that would finally implement the Resident Workers Fair Compensation Act, allowing locals still earning less than $5.15 in hourly wage to receive all benefits granted to foreign workers.

Under the law, locals whose wages are below the prevailing minimum level in the United States has the option to choose whether they want the benefits in kind or the cash equivalent of the subsidized food, housing, local transportation, health insurance and medical care received by nonresidents.

Any cash compensation benefit, the law says, shall be added to the resident worker’s base wage currently pegged at $3.15 per hour for non-garment employees.

The amendment to the fair compensation act hopes to clarify ambiguities in some of the provisions that have pushed back the implementation of the measure since it was put in place in 1995.

“This law has been passed for so many years and it was never implemented and now we ask the private sector to implement it because it is the requirement,” Tenorio said in an interview. “I’m sure if the private sector complies with the law, it will encourage the local employees to stay permanent.”