By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

SOME garment workers at the soon-to-close Michigan Inc. factory in San Antonio say they were directly and indirectly asked to pay $1,000 to $1,500 to be able to transfer to another garment factory before their 45-day transfer relief expires, prompting the Department of Labor to investigate.
“It’s illegal for any employer to ask for payment in exchange for a job,” Assistant Attorney General Dorothy Hill, counsel for Labor, told Michigan workers.
Hill said the workers did the right thing in reporting the payment issue to Labor, and asked for the workers’ cooperation in the investigation.
Yesterday, some 80 of the 154 employees of Michigan involved in a labor agency compliance case against Michigan Inc. and Pacific Five Star Inc. showed up at an administrative hearing which started at 8 a.m. and ended at around 10:30 a.m.
Michigan Inc., which manufactures Gap and Banana Republic brands of apparel, will be closing on March 30.
Its general manager, Sooho Jo, earlier told workers in a memorandum that the garment factory closure was due to “financial difficulties and deficits because of competition with the lower wages of countries in Asia,” since the Jan. 2005 liberalization of trade rules that now allow Third World countries to export their garment products to the U.S.
Michigan is the 13th garment factory on Saipan to shut down since Jan. 2005.
Labor Hearing Officer Barry Hirshbein granted 151 Michigan workers 45 days from April 1, 2007 to submit an application for transfer to a new employer.
“After April 1, your work permits with Michigan will no longer be valid, so you have to start looking for transfer employment if you still want to stay here,” Hirshbein said.
Others who have started looking for jobs told Labor officials about their experiences in applying for a job at other garment factories, including the need to pay to be able to pass the trade test or get employment.
“I took a four-hour test at Rifu 2 and one of the lady supervisors kept shouting at me and others who were applying. She said I didn’t pay and that’s why it was like that,” one of the Michigan workers from China told Variety in an interview.
This worker has been with Michigan for almost seven years and said it was questionable that she wouldn’t qualify for a position that called for exactly the same type of job she’s been doing at Michigan. She said the payments range from $1,000 to $1,500.
Others interviewed who worked for Michigan for a longer time, including one who has been with the garment factory for almost 10 years, found themselves in the same situation.
“Because I didn’t pay I didn’t get a job at Rifu…I am qualified for the job,” the worker said.
Workers said they applied at Rifu 2 in Dandan, but Rifu 2 said the workers may have mistaken Rifu 2 for L&S garment factory.
The L&S general manager, who identified himself as “Mr. Lee,” said he does not want to comment about the payment issue but confirmed that Michigan workers have been applying for a job at L&S.
One of the Michigan workers from China asked Hill to investigate the matter.
Hill said Labor will look into this matter, and asked for the cooperation of garment workers who had been asked directly or indirectly to pay in exchange for jobs.
Workers interviewed by Variety said the individuals who asked for money were those involved in the administration of the garment sewing skills test, and may not necessarily have been known to the owners of the garment factories.
After the hearing, those workers who were directly and indirectly asked to pay were asked by Hill to stay behind to provide labor investigators with more information about their ordeal.
“It is a serious violation of the law for employers to retaliate against you for cooperating with us,” Hill added.
Besides payment issues, another garment factory complained of by some Michigan workers looking for transfer employment was Sam Kwang.
During the hearing, one of the workers said she passed Sam Kwang’s skills test and was told she was hired. However, when the worker was told that she had to live at the Sam Kwang compound as a condition of her employment, she refused to take the job.
Through a translator, the worker said she felt this employment condition restricted her freedom.
Labor officials said they will have to review this condition of employment to determine whether it constitutes a violation of labor laws or regulations.
Administrative order
Michigan Inc. and Pacific Five Star Inc. notified Labor on Jan. 31 that they would be closing on March 30, and this prompted the Division of Labor director to open a compliance agency case to start an investigation.
Hirshbein, in a four-page administrative order on Compliance Agency Case No. 07-015-01 he issued yesterday, said Labor’s investigation into the closure of Michigan “discloses no violations of the Nonresident Workers Act or the Alien Labor Rules and Regulations.”
He granted 151 Michigan workers 45-day transfer relief from April 1.
The hearing officer said if any Michigan employee failed to submit a timely application for transfer, the employer of record would be notified and must provide a repatriation ticket within 15 days after the 45-day transfer relief expires.
Michigan Inc. employs 187 alien workers and Pacific Five Star employs six.
Of the 193 workers, the permits of 39 have or will expire on or before March 30, and Hirshbein’s administrative order was intended to resolve the transfer rights of the remaining workers.