Worker of defunct club told to leave CNMI

A nonresident worker is facing possible deportation for abandoning her job and failing to report to the Department of Labor for the two years following the closure of her employer’s business.

In an administrative order, Labor hearing officer Jerry Cody gave Yang Zhaohong 30 days to depart the Commonwealth. Cody said Yang’s name would be forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office for deportation proceedings if she fails to leave the CNMI within the period specified in the order.

Records showed that Yang began working as a waitress at Minami Night Club on Feb. 8, 2001. She stopped working only week later, claiming that a friend who had been driving her to the club stopped coming to pick her up.

Another week later, she flew to China where she remained from Feb. 22 until March 31, 2001.

Upon returning to Saipan on March 31, 2001, Yang learned that Minami Night Club had closed.

But Yang did not report to the Labor Department until July 2003, when she filed an appeal of a July 2002 labor order concerning the club’s closure.

In the order, the Labor Department awarded damages to two of Yang’s former co-workers. However, Yang and another worker were dismissed from the case due to their failure to appear for investigation or hearing.

“During the two years following the closing of Minami Night Club, Yang lived with a boyfriend and occasionally worked as a babysitter for ‘tips.’ Yang claims she looked for work; however, she never came to the Department to file any complaint against her former employer,” Cody said.

Accordingly, Cody concluded that Yang abandoned her employer and breached her employment contract “when she failed to appear for work and made no attempt to contact the employer about her transportation problems, then departed for China within several days.”

Cody further noted that Yang’s excuses were not credible.

“[Her employer] had offered to provide transportation to Yang, but she chose to use alternative transportation provided by her friend. Yang alleged that she stopped appearing for work due to transportation problems, yet she made no attempt to even contact the employer to resolve these problems. Yang’s contention that she lacked the money to travel from Garapan to Susupe in mid-February 2001, is not credible, given that in the same period of time she had sufficient funds to buy a plane ticket to travel from Saipan to China,” said Cody.

Further, the hearing officer said Yang’s request for authorization to seek new employment should be denied, on the grounds that she abandoned her job and failed to contact the Labor Department for two years. (Agnes E. Donato)