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Labor sanctions employer for job abandonment
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Posted on Sep 06 2004
The Department of Labor has permanently barred an employer from hiring new alien workers after she left the island without making any arrangements to fulfill her contract with a non-resident worker.
Employer Gloria Miller was also ordered to pay worker Yang Xiao Hong $2,400 for unpaid wages and unprovided work and damages, as well as a $1,000 fine.
Labor hearing officer Linn H. Asper imposed the sanctions after Miller failed to appear for the hearing of the labor case.
He noted that Miller, who no longer resides in the Commonwealth, was properly notified of the Aug. 19 hearing by mail delivery at an address that she recently provided to the Labor Department. While she managed to appear by telephone connection at a labor hearing for another case earlier this year, she failed to do so at the recent hearing.
“It is the conclusion of the hearing office that [Miller] had actual notice of the current hearing and chose not to appear. Therefore, [she] should be found to be in default in this matter,” Asper said.
Records showed that Miller hired Yang as a houseworker in early 2002. In July of the same year, Miller attempted to cancel her application to employ Yang. She left Saipan the following month, before receiving the Labor Department’s permission to do so.
In an administrative order, Asper said Miller should be ordered to pay the complainant four months wages as requested by the department, in the sum of $1,200 plus liquidated damages in an equal amount.
The hearing officer also allowed Yang to seek a transfer employer within 45 days, if she decides to stay in the Commonwealth.
