By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigations and enforcement resulted in the collection of over $14.6 million in back wages for approximately 10,500 employees in the CNMI in the last six fiscal years.
Between FYs 2001 and 2006, the federal wage and hour agency concluded 274 investigations of employers in the CNMI.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs David B. Cohen cited this as an example of the progress made by local and federal agencies since the U.S. Congress began to take a hard look at the CNMI labor conditions in the 1990s, as he testified that the U.S. Congress should build sufficient “flexibility” into the framework of any new immigration system for the CNMI.
In his 10-page testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs chaired by Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen, D-Virgin Islands, Cohen cited 10 examples of programs or activities that made a big impact on the labor situation in the CNMI, including the establishment of a local refugee protection program with financial assistance from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.
Cohen, however, recognizes that the CNMI labor situation “remains far from perfect” and there continue to be a number of concerns, including the local labor agency’s lack of experienced investigators and hearing officers to deal with labor complaints, insufficient commitment by CNMI law enforcement authorities to prosecute or sanction repeat offenders, and foreign attempts to influence the adjudication of particular cases in the CNMI’s fledgling refugee protection program.
In recent months, local media have reported on various employers abandoning their workers who have yet to receive their back wages.
In many instances, the judgments in labor administrative orders have not been carried out because the employers have fled the CNMI and local authorities no longer have contact with them.
In his testimony before the subcommittee, Cohen raised concerns about foreign nationals in the CNMI engaging in prostitution. He said the number of trafficking victims receiving services in the islands is more than 30.
Just last week, the Division of Immigration disclosed an investigation into another possible human trafficking case involving a foreign worker who was hired as a cook even though she didn’t have any experience in cooking or in any job in her country of origin.
“The CNMI’s current fiscal crisis casts doubt on its ability to ensure the timely repatriation of thousands of garment workers employed by factories who may not have the resources to pay their wages in full and provide them a plane ticket to their point of hire,” he said, adding that a majority of the bonding companies who have a secondary obligation to pay back wages and provide tickets do not have sufficient assets to meet their obligations.
The labor situation in the CNMI, he said, is inextricably linked to the fiscal and economic situation.
“The most significant threat to the human rights of foreign employees in the CNMI today is the deteriorating economy,” he said.
In addition to these concerns, Cohen said they remain troubled by the CNMI’s two-tier economy where the private sector is overly reliant on foreign employees, and where the indigenous population is overly reliant on the public sector for employment.
Because of this unique economic structure in the CNMI and the fact that approximately 50 percent of the residents are foreign employees, the ability to import labor is a factor that tends to depress wages in the private sector which, in turn, tends to reinforce the reluctance of U.S. citizens to work outside of the public sector.
“There have been attempts to address this unique structural problem through local legislation but the problem persists,” he said.
Having a large alien workforce with little economic power and relatively limited legal rights, he said, has created a great risk of exploitation and abuse in the CNMI.
The good news
Cohen, in his testimony, said U.S. Labor’s Wage and Hour Division “continues to have a strong enforcement program for all applicable provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
“In addition to investigations in the garment manufacturing industry, the (Wage and Hour Division) has had enforcement cases in the construction, hotel/motel and security guard industries,” Cohen told the subcommittee.
The independent Garment Oversight Board, which has been in place since 2003 as a result of the $20 million class action lawsuit, monitored compliance by CNMI garment factories with 59 standards relating to working and living conditions.
The Federal Labor Ombudsman’s Office, meanwhile, reported that the number of complaints filed annually had been reduced by over 60 percent since the inception of the office in 1999 – from 1,221 complaints per year to 473.
“In recent years, the complaints generally have concerned matters less grievous in nature than those identified in the early years,” said Cohen, who also cited a memorandum of agreement between OIA and the CNMI involving combating human trafficking. In addition, the CNMI enacted the Anti-Trafficking Act of 2005.
That same year, the Federal Labor Ombudsman’s Office established the Victims of Trafficking Coalition. Karidat, through its shelter, the Guma Esperansa, was one of the local entities that received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to provide services to trafficking victims.
“I would like to commend the CNMI Attorney General’s Office for aggressively investigating and winning convictions in the Red Heart massage case, where club owners pressured foreign employees into prostitution,” said Cohen, who also commended the U.S. Attorney’s Office for its successful prosecution of the U.S. v. Zheng case, also involving forced prostitution.
Cohen also cited the strategic partnership between 23 garment factories and the U.S. Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for compliance with safety and health policies that resulted in reducing the lost workday injury rate in these factories below the average for the industry nationwide.
He also mentioned the negotiated agreements with the Chinese Economic Development Association to pre-screen Chinese nationals coming to work in the CNMI.
Cohen lauded the CNMI Department of Labor for recently eliminating a backlog of over 3,000 labor cases that had begun to accumulate during prior administrations. The Federal Labor Ombudsman’s Office helped in translating the testimony of hundreds of workers in these cases.
Cohen also cited the Nov. 30, 2006 Workforce Development Summit co-sponsored by Northern Marianas College and the CNMI Workforce Investment Agency.
At that summit, most of the participating employers surveyed favored a gradual increase in the CNMI’s minimum wage of $3.05 an hour.
“We give the CNMI government a great deal of credit for the progress that has been made in the last several years. A number of others deserve a great deal of credit as well, including members of Congress who have pushed for reforms, and the garment workers and their attorneys who brought the class action suit against the garment industry…” he said.