‘CUC Saipan not allowed to keep alien workers’

The Senate has excluded the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.-Saipan from the bill that grants other government offices the authority to hire nonresident workers after Sept. 30, 2005.

Senate majority leader Paul A. Manglona clarified yesterday that the final version of Senate Bill 14-98 carries the amendment that removes CUC-Saipan altogether from the exemption.

“The original version covered the three islands but during the floor amendment, Saipan was taken out. So the final version only grants exemptions to Tinian and Rota CUC,” said Manglona.

Manglona’s statement is consistent with Sen. Luis P. Crisostimo’s earlier explanation on the bill’s coverage.

Crisostimo, who co-authored the bill with Tinian Sen. Henry S. San Nicolas, said Saipan senators Pete P. Reyes and Thomas Villagomez objected to the inclusion of CUC-Saipan in the exemption.

“They [Reyes and Villagomez] just don’t want anymore nonresident workers working in CUC, whether it’s a mechanic, engineer, or accountant,” said Crisostimo.

Thus, S.B. 14-98, substitute draft 4, section 2 (D) says that CUC is authorized to hire nonresident workers until Sept. 30, 2007 “for engineers, technical and professional employees only for the First and Second Senatorial Districts (Tinian and Rota).”

It was earlier reported that floor amendments were made to allow nonresident engineers to continue working at CUC Saipan and that power generation plant nonresident workers would keep their posts after Sept. 30.

Manglona said yesterday that these were indeed raised during the discussion but these were not voted on. He said that Saipan senators preferred to exclude CUC Saipan from the coverage.

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Earlier, Crisostimo said S.B. 14-98 is a compromise bill since it came as a result of a conference committee between the two houses on a similar measure, House Bill 14-344.

This came after the House rejected the Senate amendments to H.B. 14-344, which originally wanted to give the Department of Public Health a 10-year extension and a two-year contract term to offer its guest workers.

The Senate had lowered the extension to two years and the contract term to one year and it included Department of Public Works, Department of Commerce, and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. in the coverage.

Meantime, S.B. 14-98 aims to grant the DPH five years or up to Sept. 30, 2010 to hire physicians and dentists and two years or up to Sept. 30, 2007 to hire other health professional workers.

It also allows DPH to offer nonresident physicians and dentists a two-year contract initially and one-year terms thereafter. Other nonresident workers would remain at one-year contract terms at DPH.

The Senate bill gives Department of Commerce a two-year extension and the Department of Public Works one year or until Sept. 30, 2006.