By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

MORE than a dozen employers in the CNMI are under surveillance for possible involvement in illegal recruitment and sponsorship activities even as the Department of Labor issues stricter requirements in hiring nonresident workers.
The new requirements — which include the employers’ presentation of a certified financial statement before they are allowed to hire nonresidents — come at a time when U.S. lawmakers are keeping an eye on the CNMI’s labor and immigration.
“These employers are under surveillance,” acting Deputy Labor Secretary Alfred A. Pangelinan told Variety. “We know that we can’t fully prevent illegal sponsorship right away but we have started doing something about it. We want to emphasize the stricter requirements on the signing of hiring papers and the presentation of certified financial statements before employers are allowed to hire alien workers.”
But Pangelinan said major and stable employers in the CNMI “like Joeten Supermarket or Hyatt Regency Saipan” may not be required to present certified financial statements to Labor.
“But those smaller employers, especially those that are new, are definitely required to provide a financial income statement for the previous year of operation and a certified balance sheet to show their financial ability to hire nonresident workers,” said Pangelinan, adding that these documents should be reviewed by certified public accountants.
Pangelinan said the reports on the seven female workers from China who arrived on Saipan in late November only to find that the jobs they were recruited for were non-existent prompted Labor to review its own policy in processing the documents for alien workers. This case remains under investigation.
In a public notice, Pangelinan admitted “many flaws” that require adjustment in the processing of documents for the hiring of alien workers.
Of the five changes he enumerated, Pangelinan said employers should pay closer attention to numbers 1 and 3.
The first one bans nonresident managers and agents from signing employment documents, which has been a common practice in the CNMI.
“All employment documents, including written responses, must be signed by the employer or the general manager of the company,” Pangelinan said.
The number 3 item on the list of new requirements is the employers’ presentation to the Division of Labor of the certified financial statements.
Another new requirement is the employers’ presentation to Labor of a photo identification to support all their signatures in the employment documents.
Pangelinan, who is also the director of Labor’s Division of Employment Services and Training, said document handling agents are no longer allowed to conduct the interviews or the selection of resident workers when responding to job vacancy announcements.
These, according to Pangelinan, must instead be done by the employer or his general manager. For bigger firms, the interview and selection can be performed by the human resources department.
An internal memorandum signed by Pangelinan stated that document handling agents’ conduct of interviews and selection of resident workers “has presented problems and creates a bottleneck in the hiring of nonresident workers.”
Lastly, Labor now requires the direct contact number of the employers to ensure that resident workers responding to JVAs have direct access to them. “Agents’ contact number will no longer be accepted,” said Pangelinan.
Illegal recruitment and sponsorship have been a major concern for the CNMI Department of Labor. Many labor administrative orders have dealt with nonresident workers working for employers other than those who legally hired them, in violation of labor regulations.
Under illegal sponsorship schemes, legitimate employers sponsor the hiring of workers from off-island but once these workers reach the CNMI, they work for other employers.
Labor said it is also particularly concerned about those employers who receive a percentage of the wage earned by nonresidents who are hired by other employers.