Court tells plaintiffs to back up recruitment fee allegations

U.S. District Judge Alex R. Munson has partly granted a motion filed by Saipan garment manufacturers against allegations of charging recruitment fees to alien workers employed in their factories in connection with the $1 billion class-action suit.

In his ruling, he ordered each plaintiff to file separate claim against his or her employer to back allegations that garment manufacturers require workers to pay recruitment fees before they are hired.

But Judge Munson denied motion by lawyers of the garment firms to dismiss charges with respect to transportation costs which were contained in the third amended complaint attached to the case.

The court found that plaintiffs failed to plead claim on recruitment fees, although they were done in “conclusory manner that is insufficient to state a claim” under the federal labor laws, he said.

He gave the plaintiffs time to amend the complaint to plead additional factual allegations and with more particularly, according to his ruling issued Tuesday.

“The court observed that plaintiffs may be able to establish a prima facie [evidence]… that their wages were not received free and clear because of the recruitment fees paid by plaintiffs or that the recruitment fees were tantamount to a kick-back because they were a cost that should have been borne by the employer,” said Judge Munson.

While aware that separate complaint involving claims on recruitment fees could drag the case, he stressed this would facilitate clear presentation of the allegations since they were directed at all the defendants when the evidence pointed only to some employers who may be liable in this case.

At the same time, Judge Munson ruled that although he dismissed claims that their food and housing were deducted from their salaries, the plaintiffs can still state these allegation on their appeal.

Last April, garment manufacturers won a minor victory in the federal court when it threw out the two allegations — on food and housing deduction as well as recruitment fees — from the case.

Judge Munson ruled in favor of the garment manufacturers to streamline the issues contained in the suit which was brought up in early 1999 against garment manufacturers in the CNMI and some of their U.S. buyers and retailers.

It accused manufacturers and mainland-based buyers of labor violations against contract workers who were hired by these garment factories from China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. They have denied the charges, although some retailers and buyers have agreed to settle the suit in recent months.