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499 guest workers told to leave in ‘04
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Posted on May 15 2005
Nearly 500 nonresident workers were ordered to depart the Commonwealth for violating labor laws in 2004, the Department of Labor reported.
The orders were issued to the workers as a result of hearings conducted by the department’s Administrative Hearing Office in the one-year period ending Dec. 31, 2004.
Some of the violations that commonly lead to such orders include missing transfer deadlines, filing frivolous complaints, and engaging in the illegal “sponsorship” scheme.
According to the Labor Department, the Hearing Office conducted 526 hearings and issued 506 administrative orders.
Aside from the 499 orders to depart the CNMI or face deportation, the hearings also resulted in the following: 1,080 workers being granted transfer relief; 28 employers being barred from employing nonresident workers; five workers being permanently barred from being employed in the CNMI; and four employers and four employees being conditionally barred.
The Hearing Office issued total monetary awards of $119,290.46 to workers for back wages in 2004. Fines against employers and some employees totaled $81,193.95, of which only $22,170 has been paid to the department.
During the same period, 620 cases were mediated, of which 164 were settled in mediation and 461 were referred to the investigation section.
Of the settled cases, 33 workers agreed to resume employment with their employers, and 105 workers were granted transfer relief to seek new employers. Some of the settlements resulted in the payment of $101,220.99 to employees by employers.
The Hearing Office also handled a large number of cases involving employers and employees who appeal the denial of their employment applications. The department attributed this to the increased inefficiency of the Division of Labor’s Processing Section.
A total of 392 cases were filed with the Hearing Office in 2004, a slight decrease from 448 cases in 2003 and almost four times the 80 denial appeals in 2002.
The Labor Department further observed a continuing trend of dozens of nearing identical complaints being filed by garment workers.
The number of the so-called “copycat complaints” filed with the department in 2004 reached 610.
