“This umbrella permit program certainly appears to be a political move,” she said in an e-mail. “An early Christmas gift from the Fitial administration to employers and businesses relinquishing them of their obligation to pay benefits right before the election. The timeline and deadline for the guest workers to sign make it appear that way.”
She said the new permit policy “will also benefit business owners who want to maintain the broken labor system, the Department of Labor, and those who profit…at the expense of the disenfranchised workers.”
Asked for comment, the department’s volunteer legal adviser Deanne Siemer said, “Wendy Doromal is wrong. The two-year permit protects a worker’s status. If a worker does not have the two-year permit that the commonwealth is offering, and their current permit expires, they could be completely out of status with absolutely no way to get back into status.”
She added, “Wendy does not know what the federal CNMI-only permit system will require. No one knows this. The federal visa waiver regulations for visitors from China and Russia were very unfavorable to tourists. The commonwealth’s comments made this plain. The federal investor regulations were very unfavorable to investors. Again, the commonwealth’s comments made this plain. So it would be reasonable to expect that the federal worker regulations could well be very unfavorable to workers.”
Siemer doubts “that any lawyer representing foreign workers would agree with Wendy’s advice. The Labor Department has consulted closely with lawyers representing foreign workers. Four lawyers representing foreign workers are members of the Attorney General’s Protocol Working Group. The process of developing the commonwealth’s two-year permit program has been very inclusive of all points of view. I doubt that the Philippine consul-general would agree with Wendy’s advice. The consul-general’s office has been consulted in this process. I personally offered Wendy an opportunity to participate in the process. She never responded.”
Siemer said Doromal’s advice “could be very harmful to individual foreign workers who do not get the two-year permit that the commonwealth is offering. The permit states very clearly, in bold print, that any worker is free to transfer into any federal CNMI-only permit system at any time the worker chooses to do so. So, if a worker takes a two-year permit from the commonwealth, and a better deal comes along from the federal system, the worker is free to take that deal. But if a worker does not take a two-year permit, and a much worse deal comes along from the federal system, the worker will lose status at the end of their current permit and could be totally out of luck as the department currently has no authority to issue permits after Nov. 27, 2009.”
However, she added, “if the commonwealth wins the federalization lawsuit, the Labor Department’s powers to issue permits may remain in force.”
Siemer said “Wendy’s intense political dislike of the governor should not blind her to the advantages the governor’s program offers foreign workers, and she should not give irresponsible advice from afar without consulting legal counsel who represent foreign workers right here in the commonwealth.”
The Department of Labor said the two-year permit will help stabilize the workforce, protect employers and employees, and prevent undue damage to the economy.
‘No benefit’
According to Doromal, “Passing Rep. Tina Sablan’s proposed status legislation would have benefited and protected [guest workers.] … I would absolutely not recommend signing the [two-year] permit.”
In response to Doromal’s call, Human Dignity Movement president Itos Feliciano said he will urge other guest workers not to sign the two-year umbrella permit.
“There is no benefit for us,” Feliciano added.
He said it is not even certain if the two-year umbrella permit is “legal” since the CNMI has yet to know the federal regulations for the nonresident workers.
Doromal said the two-year permit is “an outright attempt by the Fitial administration to maintain the broken local labor system under the federal program, just as the anti-federalization lawsuit is.”
She added, “Why would any worker sign the permit when the workers are not gaining anything if they sign it?”
She said the administration “is attempting to dump all of the employers’ financial obligations, which include healthcare and repatriation, on the federal government and U.S. taxpayers.”
Doromal describes this policy as “reprehensible.”
There’s over $6.1 million in unpaid judgments to guest workers and many employers have already gotten out of paying back wages, she added.
Test run
Labor will issue some permits for the two-year umbrella program to guest workers who are in the transfer extension system within this week.
By Tuesday, Labor will hand out some permits for the first small batch in a test run of the system.
“The legality of such a program needs to be explored before the permits are even printed,” Doromal said.
“Will we see scams and schemes associated with permits that are so easy to forge? I predict yes. The Fitial administration has sunk to an all time low.”
Alfred Pangelinan, Labor’s employment services and training director, said the new two-year umbrella permits will have no adverse effect on the employment opportunities for U.S. citizens in the CNMI.
“The new permits help protect the economy and also protect U.S. citizen jobs. All of the priority protections for U.S. citizens stay in place. We have always been very clear about that,” Pangelinan said.
When an employer wishes to hire or renew a foreign worker, that employer must post a job vacancy announcement so that any U.S. citizen who is looking for a job can go to the Labor Web site and see that job availability, he said.
“Any time a U.S. citizen applies for a job that might otherwise be taken by a foreign worker, we monitor the situation and we require a report from the employer on who was hired. If any employer is not complying with the law, which gives preference to U.S. citizen workers, then we may take action to revoke all their foreign worker permits,” Pangelinan said.
