‘Govt lawyer needed to screen labor complaints’

Department of Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas has underscored the need to get an additional government lawyer whose sole purpose is just to review labor complaints.

San Nicolas, in an interview with the Saipan Tribune, said that, in changing the regulations governing the issuance of memorandum to seek temporary employment, he wants an additional assistant attorney general who will look into the labor complaints and decide whether or not they warrant further investigation.

“By doing that, we can at that stage…refuse to issue memorandums [to seek temporary employment]. But again, we need a trained attorney who understands labor laws and the legal issues surrounding the issuance of memorandums and temporary work authorizations,” he said.

At present, only assistant attorney general Dorothy Hill is assigned to the department.

San Nicolas said it is not that Hill cannot do the job of reviewing the complaints, but because of her current workload.

“Her [Hill] current workload is too much already. I don’t want to give her so much work,” the secretary said.

“I intend to make the changes. Give me a couple of months to make sure that all complaints that come in are being screened by a legal professional before the issuance of memorandum,” he added.

Under the plan, San Nicolas said, the assistant attorney general must make the recommendations to the Labor director whether or not the department should issue a memorandum or not to a complainant.

Under the present setup, if an employee files a labor complaint, the matter will be forwarded to the hearing officer for mediation. After an unsuccessful good faith attempt to settle the matter, the hearing officer may recommend issuance of a memorandum. In addition to that, the Labor director has the authority also to issue a memorandum depending on the nature of the complaint.

“Right now the normal practice is that we issue a memorandum pending the resolution of the case at the mediation. But again I intend to make changes to that rule,” San Nicolas stressed.

He cited that the problem right now is that any employee who files a complaint, no matter what the complaints are, gets a memorandum.

“I think that’s where the problem is because they see that the system is too liberal. It’s just a matter of ‘Let’s file a complaint, we’ll get a memorandum.’ And it takes Labor years and years to resolve the case so we can be out there working,” he said.

In the short time since he’s been appointed secretary, San Nicolas said he has learned that the memorandums that have been issued are being used by the employees to work. This means they are using this document in lieu of a temporary work authorization.

Some workers, he noted, don’t necessarily go to the process of obtaining a temporary work authorization, which would allow them to legally work temporarily.

The memorandum is an authorization to seek a temporary employer, while the TWA authorizes a temporary employment contract. This means that someone holding a memorandum is authorized to seek a temporary employer. Once he or she finds a temporary employer, they will have to go to Labor again and obtain a TWA so he or she could actually start working.

Citing a recent case at a factory, San Nicolas said many of the arrested alien workers were using the memorandum to work and this would only prove they are not officially on the payroll list of the employer.

He said the employers too are hesitant because they are aware that the memorandum is not a legal document for the workers to work.

“At the same time, those employees who are doing [using the memorandum to work] are getting away from paying their taxes. So whether they are getting paid by checks or cash, I’m pretty sure that the taxes are not deducted and it will not show,” he said.

The secretary said they are going to revisit the regulations and make amendments if necessary to make sure that only those with valid complaints or have merits could get a memorandum or temporary worth authorizations.

The secretary had earlier vowed to aggressively pursue employers and employees who have been abusing the memorandum to seek temporary employment.