Employer fined, barred from hiring alien workers

The Department of Labor has ordered sanctions against an employer who abandoned two alien workers after the company’s general manager was convicted of a drug offense earlier this year.

H.I.S. Inc., doing business as Masa Shiatsu Studio, and its president Kazuko Hisaki were each fined $1,000 for its labor law violations. The company was also ordered to pay another $1,030.90 to worker Tina E. Aduca for unpaid wages and damages.

Further, hearing officer Jerry Cody in an Oct. 26 order permanently barred H.I.S. Inc. and Kasuko Hisaki from employing nonresident workers in the Commonwealth.

H.I.S. Inc. owned and operated the Masa Shiatsu Studio located in the Summer Holiday in Garapan. In January 2004, general manager Kenichi Hisaki was convicted of a drug offense and sentenced to federal prison.

The owners closed the business shortly thereafter, without making any arrangements to secure transfer relief for nonresident workers Tina E. Aduca and Ryoko Kurokawa. As of the date of the closure, both workers had renewal applications pending with the department.

At the hearing, both workers requested permission to transfer to a new employer.

Kurokawa said she was not owed any past wages. Aduca said she was not paid wages. Evidence showed that H.I.S. Inc. owed her $515.45 in wages at the time the company officials closed the business and left the CNMI.

Kasuko Hisaki or any representative of H.I.S. Inc. failed to show up at the hearing or advise the department of their whereabouts.

Since the company officers have departed the Commonwealth, Cody said the surety company that issued a bond for Aduca’s employment is obligated to pay the wage award from the bond proceeds.

Cody instructed Oceania Insurance Corp. to either deliver the wage portion of the award to the complainant or request a hearing on the subject of its duty to do so.

The hearing officer referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office for collection assistance.

Meanwhile, both employees were allowed to seek new employers. They were each given 45 days from the issuance date of the order, or until Dec. 10, 2004, to find a transfer employer who should file a permit application within the same 45-day period.

“In the event that either complainant is unable to file the necessary application within the 45-day period, she shall be repatriated to her original place of hire at the expense of her last employer on record, or by means of the applicable bond,” Cody said.