By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

AN employer on Tinian has failed to pay a worker $1,650 in back wages despite a stipulated settlement agreement and administrative order from the Department of Labor in August 2005.
The worker, Mohammed Kabir, filed a complaint against employer Marcus B. Untalan in 2000 for not paying wages owed him amounting to $1,975.
On Aug. 8, 2005, the parties settled the case by means of a stipulated settlement agreement signed by the parties and approved by Labor hearing officer Jerry Cody.
However, except for the initial payment of $325 on the day of the settlement, the employer did not make succeeding payments on the remaining $1,650 in back wages as agreed in the settlement.
Cody, in an administrative order dated May 21, said Untalan breached the terms of the settlement by his failure to pay 11 installment payments of $150 every month from Sept. 1, 2005 through July 1, 2006.
The hearing officer thus ordered Untalan, an employer on Tinian, to pay Kabir the unpaid portion of the settlement amounting to $1,650, plus liquidated damages in the same amount for a total of $3,300.
“Such liquidated damages are fully justified given that the complainant has been deprived of the benefit of the settlement funds for many months,” said Cody in his three-page order.