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Senate supports bill to create new hire directory
The Senate during their session last week in the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill unanimously passed a bill that creates a State Directory of New Hires for the CNMI.
In its session last week, the Senate unanimously supported Senate President Arnold I. Palacios’ (R-Saipan) Senate Bill 20-64, which seeks to create a state directory of new hires as federally mandated for each state and territory.
The state directory of new hires was intended to assist the Child Support Enforcement Office to “more effectively enforce the child support obligations of non-custodial parents,” the bill specified.
The bill mandates employers—both private and public—to report the dates of hiring or rehiring of an employee to the director of new hires, or the NMI attorney general or his designee within the Child Support Enforcement Office.
The bill also mandates employers to report an initial list of all its current employees to the director of new hires, as well as report any resignations, terminations, or furloughing of employees.
S.B. 20-64 punishes employers who fail to report the listed requirements with a written notice of non-compliance. If an employer is issued a second written notice of non-compliance, then the employer is subject to a penalty of $25 for each intentionally unreported employee and $500 for each intentionally unreported employee if the failure to report is a result of “conspiracy between the employer and employee not to supply the required report or to supply a false or incomplete report.”
The date obtained from this bill may only be accessed by qualified government agencies, including the Child Support Enforcement Office for information on individuals for obligatory purposes. Other included government agencies with access to the information is the Department of Labor, the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, and “any other agency administering a federal program enumerated in 42 USC§1320b-7(b),” the bill specified, citing a federal law in participation with the bill.
