Senators bridge differences on use of manpower agencies

Legislation extending authority of key government agencies to employ nonresident workers is expected to pass the Senate after members resolved differences over using manpower agencies to recruit personnel.

But senators will further amend the House proposal to exclude the Office of Public Auditor from the hiring exemption, which means that nonresidents working at OPA as auditors and accountants will have to go once their contract is finished.

Sen. Richardo S. Atalig, chair of the Committee on Health, Education and Welfare, said they would rush passage of HB 12-285 since many of those hit by the expiration of the authority could face deportation.

The Senate may hold its session today or tomorrow, he said. The measure was calendared last week after members debated whether manpower agencies should be allowed in hiring nurses from abroad.

According to Mr. Atalig, that issue was resolved during a meeting the other day with Public Health Sec. Joseph Kevin Villagomez as well as heads of Department of Public Work, Northern Marianas College and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.

Mr. Villagomez told them nurses provided by manpower agencies have actually reduced personnel costs by about $1 million annually since the government doesn’t have to provide benefits like housing and medical insurance, said the Rota senator.

“This is very important because we are dealing with human lives and if we stop this practice, how can we hire new nurses to replace those whose contracts are expiring,” Mr. Atalig told in an interview yesterday.

Earlier, Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes raised concern over continued practice of hiring nurses through the manpower services, noting that it has affected morale of hospital staff due to salary discrepancy.

But the HEW chair maintained Mr. Reyes has already thrown his support for the proposal to allow such hiring practice following disclosure of the cost-benefit analysis.

Sponsored by House Committee on Health and Welfare Rep. Malua T. Peter, HB 12-285 seeks to extend the sunset provision under PL 10-4 that gave government agencies until Sept. 30, 2000 to phase out their nonresident workers.

But NMC, DPW, DPH and CUC have appealed to lawmakers to move the deadline since the local labor pool is still not enough to fill the jobs with the skills and training of their nonresident employees.

Mr. Atalig said the Senate decided to grant the extension of up to Sept. 30, 2005 to most of the agencies, except for DPW which it will set to 2002 only.

But it will remove OPA, as well as the Department of Commerce, from the exemption as proposed by the House since there are enough resident workers who can be employed by the agency as accountants and auditors.

“There will be no extension for these two agencies because we want them to hire local people. So far, they are in that direction,” explained the HEW chair.