By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE Department of Labor has fined an employer $150 for the late filing of an application to renew the permit of a nonresident worker who changed her mind about not renewing her contract because of the typhoons that struck her hometown in the Philippines.
Labor Hearing Officer Herbert D. Soll, in a Feb. 8 administrative order, said that Triple M Corp. desired to renew Eulaila C. Feria, whose contract expired in August 2006, because her work was considered above average.
But Feria, a baker, decided not to renew her contract because she missed her family in the Philippines.
But as she prepared to return home, the first of several typhoons struck the area of her village in Luzon. Reports from her family described widespread damage to their belongings. The likely protracted, difficult recovery coupled with bleak prospects for work in the Philippines prompted her to remain on Saipan and continue her employment.
Soll, in his two-page order, said the worker approached her employer with a request to remain on Saipan and continue her employment.
But by the time the renewal application could be worked out, the date of the contract expiration had long passed.
The Department of Labor recommended, and the hearing officer concurred, the accepting of the application upon payment of a monetary sanction amounting to $150.
Soll reversed the earlier denial of the renewal application, allowing Feria to continue her work pending the processing of her completed application.