DURING a settlement conference last week before Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy of the District Court for the NMI, nine former firefighters and former Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig said they had tentatively reached a settlement in the lawsuit over premium pay.
The parties were finalizing the terms of the settlement and planned to file a stipulation by May 16, 2025, according to court minutes.
Last year, former firefighters Paul T. Acebedo, Jose K. Angui, Allen T. Calvo, Cain C. Castro, Argernon A. Flores, Derek Gersonde, Shawn DLR Kaipat, Philip M. Kalen, and Adam J. Safer sued Atalig in the amount of $100,000 in damages, in his individual capacity, for deprivation of their civil rights. They are represented by attorney Joseph Horey.
“Defendant’s actions in approving less than the full $5,000 amount of premium pay for plaintiffs were without rational basis, and deprived plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as applicable to the CNMI via the Covenant, and actionable pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983,” the lawsuit stated.
“Defendant’s actions were taken under color of CNMI law,” it added.
The federal court has scheduled a bench trial for July 8, 2025.
According to attorney Keith Chambers, who represents Atalig, the former firefighters did not meet all the qualifications for the $5,000 premium pay.
Chambers said the former firefighters “are unable to show that Mr. Atalig caused, within the meaning of Section 1983, plaintiffs to suffer a constitutional deprivation.”
He said Atalig “is protected from civil liability and suit under the doctrine of Qualified Immunity,” and the court should dismiss the complaint.
Background
According to the lawsuit, on or about Dec. 29, 2021, then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres announced that the Department of Finance would release premium pay for CNMI government employees who had worked at least 40 hours to directly mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
The announcement stated that CNMI government employees who had worked on the front lines of the pandemic for at least 40 hours in directly mitigating Covid-19, such as providing prevention, response, preparedness, and recovery services, would receive $5,000 in premium pay.
Each of the plaintiffs, as fire department employees, had worked at least 40 hours to directly mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic, their lawsuit stated.
Each of the plaintiffs filled out and submitted, to the Department of Finance, their respective applications for premium pay.
Although each of the plaintiffs met all the qualifications for premium pay in the amount of $5,000, Atalig approved premium pay for each of them in the amount of $1,000 only, the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit added that Atalig “decided arbitrarily that resigned, terminated, and inactive frontline employees would receive premium pay in the amount of $1,000 only.”
“Plaintiffs, who were no longer employed by the Commonwealth government at the time premium pay was issued, were therefore paid less than full premium pay, notwithstanding the fact that they had already performed the amount of direct pandemic mitigation work required to qualify for full premium payment,” the lawsuit said.
The former firefighters were terminated because of their refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine. They previously filed a separate lawsuit in Superior Court requesting to reinstate them as firefighters.
But the Superior Court affirmed the Civil Service Commission’s decision terminating them for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine.
