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USDOL wants IPI to be found in contempt
The U.S Department of Labor wants Imperial Pacific international (CNMI) LLC to be found in contempt of court for violating a consent judgement.
USDOL, in its petition for contempt, accused IPI executives of unlawfully requiring stranded employees to work without pay during a global pandemic, and failing to meet the workers’ basic necessities or provide for their return to their home countries.
The USDOL wants the court to enforce the April 11, 2019 consent judgment and issue an order finding IPI, IPI chairwoman and executive director Cui Li Jie, and IPI CNMI chief executive officer Donald Browne in civil contempt for violating the judgment.
USDOL said IPI executives should pay $788,022.54 to their employees, and pay USDOL $1,379,426 in back wages owed under the judgment.
The USDOL said IPI should be required to place $2 million in an escrow account prior to their employees resuming work.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona will hear the USDOL petition on Jan. 21, 2021 at 8:30am.
IPI last year agreed to a consent judgment with the USDOL to settle and resolve the labor violations by construction contractors of IPI.
IPI agreed to pay USDOL $3,360,000 for back wages, liquidated damages, and civil monetary penalties.
The consent judgment, which also prohibits IPI and its agents from violating labor laws, was signed by IPI Holdings chairwoman Cui Li Jie, her lawyer, Eugene R. Sullivan, and Boris Orlov, senior trial attorney for the USDOL.
“The defendants can put forth no reasonable justification for their failure to comply with the FLSA and the judgment while continuing to profit from their employees’ labor. This case requires the remedy of a contempt order to ensure compliance because defendants refuse to pay the wages owed to their employees while profiting from their labor, continue to violate the judgment, and are exploiting workers already struggling because they have not been paid in over two months,” USDOL stated.
