Labor to implement hardship exemptions

Many nonresident workers with families or who are facing real hardships will not be made to go through the mandatory exit requirement, according to Labor Department officials.

Public Law 15-108 requires foreign workers to exit the islands every three and a half years but, according to lawyer Deanne Seimmer, who is assisting Labor, the department is working on implementing a “hardship exemption” that would postpone the exit requirement for foreign workers who are facing “real hardships.”

“We recognize that there are foreign workers who do not have a place to go, or too many children to take with them, or are facing a situation on island that will not allow them to leave,” Seimmer said.

The department is working with a variety of agencies such as the Philippine Consulate General, the Legislature, and other foreign worker groups to come up with a fair set of criteria on how to implement the exemption for foreign workers who are faced with real hardship.

“The hardship exemption will not excuse the periodic exit altogether,” Seimmer explained, “but will postpone the periodic exit” until the employee can be able to leave without conflict.

Seimmer said that in the U.S. mainland, there is “almost no hardship exemption. But because we’re a small place, and we need provisions that are appropriate for our situation, we try to accommodate everyone’s interest in putting this [hardship exemption] together.”

There is no set date yet as to when the provision will take place.

The DOL is also trying to work on allowing employers to designate 10 percent of their employees as “key employees,” who will be exempted from exiting as required by the new law.

“You will get to pick who your ‘key employees’ are because you as the employer know who is important to your business, and they will not have to leave,” Seimmer said.

She said that the department “is trying to do the best we can for the Commonwealth and develop a system that is fair for everyone, not burdensome for everyone and at the same time complies with the general U.S. requirement for a touchback.”

Touchback refers to requiring aliens to go back to their home countries periodically for brief periods of time. This results in a gap in an alien’s stay in his or her host country, preventing him or her from obtaining resident status.

“The U.S. immigration system requires touchbacks for non-immigrant visa holders,” she said.