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Kilili: CW workers should also obtain unemployment benefits
Sablan
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) is still working to make sure that foreign workers in the Marianas—also called CW workers—receive the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance provided in the recently enacted CARES Act.
“CW workers and the businesses that employ them are essential to the Marianas economy,” Sablan said. “Making sure those workers have some means of support, even if their employing businesses have closed temporarily because of the coronavirus, will make it possible for the Marianas to recover more quickly, once the health crisis has passed.”
The CARES Act does not specifically include or exclude CW workers from eligibility for unemployment assistance. Sablan is working in Washington, D.C. to assure that the U.S. Department of Labor implements the law in a way that will include CW workers.
The CARES Act requires that an individual worker be able and available to work within the meaning of state unemployment compensation law in order to be eligible for assistance. But the Marianas does not have an unemployment compensation law.
CW workers and other non-U.S. citizen taxpayers are generally eligible for the “recovery rebate” of up to $1,200 per individual or $2,400 per joint filers. They must have resided in the Marianas for at least 31 days in 2020 and 183 days in the last three years. (PR)
