Alien worker found lying about job background

The Department of Labor has ordered a nonresident worker to depart the Commonwealth after finding that she fabricated a job background in order to be able to work for her father’s business.

In an Aug. 26 order, Labor hearing officer Jerry Cody gave Rowena C. Asuncion 20 days to leave the CNMI. Her name would be immediately referred to the Attorney General’s Office for possible deportation if she fails to depart within the given period.

Records showed that Asuncion arrived in the CNMI in 1995, pursuant to an entry permit to work as a waitress. To obtain the 1995 permit, she submitted a nonresident worker’s affidavit that made no mention of any sales-related job that she had held.

In 2001 and 2002, she submitted affidavits to obtain a permit to work as salesperson for two different employers, listing a prior job as a salesperson for Johnny’s Market in the Philippines from 1987 to 1989. But the affidavits did not list any prior sales manager job.

In September 2003, Asuncion signed yet another affidavit, this time to obtain a consensual transfer permit to work as a sales manager at her father’s catering business. She listed her prior sales-related jobs for Johnny’s Market in the Philippines, and Ever Trust Corp. and Antonio Camacho on Saipan, but did not mention a sales manager job.

Instead, she attached a letter from Duty Free Shoppers in the Philippines certifying that Asuncion had worked at the company as a sales manager from 1991 to 1995.

The Division of Labor denied the application, saying that Asuncion had given false or incomplete information on her current and prior affidavits.

Asuncion appealed, but failed to offer a credible explanation for her failure to list her work history as a sales manager on prior affidavits.

“Asuncion asks the hearing officer to accept that she inadvertently omitted the sales manager job on all prior affidavits, but that she is now telling the truth about working as a sales manager in the Philippines,” Cody said. “Asuncion’s current testimony is impeached by her own earlier affidavits, which she submitted under oath, attesting then—as she does now—that each was correct, complete, and truthful.”

Further, Cody noted that Asuncion listed that she had attended a computer college during the same period in which she claims she was a sales manager.

He also questioned the credibility of the certification produced by the worker.

“Ms. Asuncion’s acts of deception and/or omission…constitute ample grounds to deny her the discretionary relief of transfer to another employer,” Cody concluded.

The hearing officer denied the permit transfer application submitted by Asuncion’s father to employ her. He ordered the father, who is Asuncion’s last employer of record, to pay for the expense of her repatriation.