Labor official in word war with JTPA chief

An official of the Department of Labor and Immigration yesterday lashed out at Job Training and Partnership Act Director Felix Nogis for accusing the labor office of failure to carry out its job in ensuring that the local workforce are gainfully employed.

Amid the economic crisis, the department was able to help some 500 locals get a job from January-May of this year alone in various companies, according to Alfred Pangelinan, director of the Division of Employment Services.

The new system adopted by the division to ensure efficient delivery of public service is now seven times more effective in giving jobs to locals from the time some 93 locals were hired from February 1997 to March 1998, he said.

Pangelinan’s advise to Nogis: “Find out first what we have been doing to improve the system. Otherwise, what he is doing is nothing more but a power trip. It should not be about power trip, it should be about serving.”

The JTPA head has accused the labor department and other government of neglecting to monitor whether the private sector complies with the law on the 20 percent local hiring requirement.

With a 28,000 nonresident workers on the island, Nogis said he cannot understand why there is a 14 percent unemployment rate on the island. This only proves that the private sector prefer foreign workers because their salaries and benefits are much cheaper compared to locals, he said.

Instead of criticizing, Pangelinan said JTPA must work with the labor department in finding ways on how to improve the hiring rate of resident workers, including those who did not even finish high school.

Saying the JTPA chief’s accusations are nothing more but a publicity stunt, Pangelinan asked Nogis to be more decent by giving respect and credit to the DOLI employees who have been carrying out their job well.

For more than a year now, Pangelinan said he has been trying to get the cooperation of JTPA so that the locals who undergo a six-month training in the private sector will be assured of jobs.

Unfortunately, Nogis has chosen to ignore him despite repeated requests to meet with the JTPA chief for more than a year-and-a half now. He said Nogis should learn how to work as a team since he is considered a leader in public service.

” Are you up to the challenge of working together hand in hand for one common objective? I challenge you to make it better for the benefit of the CNMI. Let us try and avoid publicity stunts. Let’s stop talking and let’s start serving,” said Pangelinan.