Task force to deal with displaced garment workers

A task force convened by attorney general Pamela Brown to discuss ways to deliver services to out-of-work garment workers has signed a partnership agreement outlining the responsibilities of each task force member.

The Garment Task Force is composed of representatives from the Office of the Attorney General’s Division of Immigration, the Department of Labor, the Federal Ombudsman’s Office, the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, the Garment Oversight Board and the Chinese Economic Development Association.

Although the task force has only been meeting since January, Labor Secretary Jack Tenorio, Federal Ombudsman Jim Benedetto and Brown began discussing these issues early in 2003.

“The signing of this partnership agreement is an important step in making sure that the Commonwealth’s guest workers are not left homeless, or without food and necessary medical care,” said Brown. “We intend to see that our guest workers receive all the compensation they are entitled to under their contracts, and that those who wish to return to their country of origin are repatriated without any unnecessary delay.”

Under the terms of the partnership agreement, the parties agree to share responsibility for providing various necessary services to garment workers who have been laid off due to factory closures.

The CNMI Department of Labor shoulders much of the burden for providing services, given its mandate to enforce the Nonresident Workers Act and the Minimum Wage & Hour Act. Within one business day of receiving notice of an impending or actual factory closure, CNMI Labor officials will contact the owner of any factory provided housing and food services, to ensure that displaced workers will continue to have room and board until other arrangements can be made.

Labor will also contact the Commonwealth Health Center, to ensure that workers will continue to be able to seek and receive necessary medical treatment until they are re-employed or repatriated. Labor also agreed to issue memoranda to seek temporary employment to all affected workers within three business days.

Other responsibilities that fall to Labor include: providing registration information for all affected workers to be included on the employment services roster administered by Labor’s Division of Employment Services; providing notices of potential claim to all bonding companies that have issued labor bonds covering affected workers, and requesting information about the bonding companies’ present ability to provide back wages and repatriation tickets; and completions of any investigation into the closure of the factory, so back wages can be awarded and tickets provided for those who wish to return to their country of origin.

The Division of Immigration will verify the status of passports or other necessary travel documents for affected workers, and to assist in renewal and replacement of expired or lost passports. The AGO will also process applications for back wages and repatriation tickets for workers making claims from the Commonwealth Alien Deportation Fund, which is available to repatriate workers under Public law 11-66.

The Federal Ombudsman Fund will assist in the collection of information from displaced workers necessary to contact and compensate those who return home prior to recovery of their back wages. The Ombudsman’s staff will also assist in the orientation of workers by providing interpretation at administrative hearings, public meetings, and other proceedings associated with processing worker claims.

The Garment Oversight Board will provide compensation to workers who have been brought to Saipan under contract with a garment factory that closes before the worker can recoup the recruitment fees that were paid in China.

SGMA has agreed to survey its members to determine whether barracks space is available to house displaced workers from other factories at reduced cost, or no cost, to the workers. SGMA will also discuss and adopt an industry standard for ethical downsizing of its member factories, emphasizing maximum notice to the workers, a rational method of determining which workers are laid off or not renewed, and timely payment of all wages due to repatriation tickets.

The Chinese Economic Development Association is still reviewing the agreement, and is expected to ratify it shortly. Once approved, the agreement calls for CEDA to help with the repatriation of workers who cannot be repatriated by the employer of record, the bonding company, or the Commonwealth Alien Deportation Fund. Under the agreement, CEDA would also help locate workers in China and assist the Commonwealth government in disbursing compensation that is awarded after the worker returns to China, and to expedite passport renewal or replacement requests for Chinese nationals who wish to return to China.

The long-anticipated expiration of the 30-year-old textile quota system under the General Agreement on Trade & Tariffs and the removal of restrictions on U.S. importation of textile goods from the People’s Republic of China, as part of the agreement that admitted China into the World Trade Organization, has resulted in a significant drop in orders to the CNMI’s Saipan-based garment manufacturing industry. (PR)