By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THREE years after it closed, N.E.T. Corp., doing business as Pacific Coast in San Antonio, still has not paid many of its former garment workers their wages for work performed from February through April 2004 totaling about $80,666.
Yesterday, at least 29 of the 111 workers affected by the non-payment of wages showed up at a Department of Labor administrative hearing to confirm the amount still owed to them by the defunct factory.
Interviewed workers say many former employees have gone back to China and the Philippines without getting their back wages from the company.
Labor said the garment factory breached the employment contracts of its 111 employees by closing down its operation “without allowing the employees proper and timely transfers.”
“When are we going to get paid? We can not wait any longer; we don’t have work anymore,” one of the workers from China told Labor personnel yesterday.
He added that he has yet to get reimbursement from the company for his airfare to Saipan.
When the garment factory closed in 2004, it owed employees $110,829.94 in back wages.
Labor investigator Frank Aguon told Variety that while payments have been made since then, there is still $80,666 that has not been paid.
Assistant Attorney General Dorothy Hill, counsel for Labor, said that while it may be difficult to collect money from the defunct company, the department is looking into collecting from the workers’ bonds.
Labor hearing officer Barry Hirshbein said an administrative order on the compliance agency case may be issued as early as next week, but another administrative hearing will be held on July 6 for other issues related to the case.
Paul Zak, the vice president of the defunct garment factory, yesterday said he is not in a position to dispute the workers’ claims of what the factory owes them but said he will work with Labor to settle the issue of payment of back wages.
However, the workers told Labor during the hearing that they “don’t trust Mr. Zak because he gave us a false contact number. He hides from us.”
One of the former workers said she worked for the factory for about eight years and has yet to collect over $1,000 in back wages.
Another worker said while she only has $743.61 to collect from the factory, she still wants to wait for it.
“I worked for it. It’s not so much about the amount, but when a worker works, it’s just right that the employer pays for the work done,” she said. She worked for the company from 1998 until its closure in 2004.
A 34-year-old worker said he showed up at the hearing “just to learn what has happened to our labor case.”
The results of an investigation in 2004 showed that Pacific Coast failed to employ, on a full-time basis, at least 20 percent U.S. citizen residents of the CNMI in management and/or supervisory positions.
The company also failed to pay 111 employees their wages and failed to account for 15 employees who were undocumented and/or departed the CNMI.