PACIFIC Rim Land Development has been sued in federal court for implementing mass layoffs without adequate notice.
Martin Dela Cruz, Martin Dela Cruz Jr. and Christoper Leedelrio, represented by attorney Cong Nie, have accused Pacific Rim of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act, which protects workers from mass layoffs without adequate notice.
Dela Cruz was employed as a rigger/carpenter; Dela Cruz Jr., rigger/laborer; and Leedelrio, field engineer.
They are alleging that Pacific Rim ordered a mass layoff that affected them and other similarly situated employees.
In 2018, Pacific Rim entered into a construction contract with Imperial Pacific International to perform construction work for a casino-hotel resort complex in Garapan.
Pacific Rim developed a construction plan with a target completion date in May 2019.
Pacific Rim also recruited people from Saipan, Guam and other places to employ them in construction-related positions, such as general laborers, carpenters, riggers, equipment operators, welders, electricians, painters, pipe layers, and engineers.
All those employees worked at the same IPI site.
After IPI failed to pay Pacific Rim or about May 11, 2018, Pacific Rim said it would suspend work at the IPI site unless IPI “cured the nonpayment.” IPI promised to pay Pacific Rim, but did not meet its payment obligations to Pacific Rim for June 2018 or subsequent months.
On July 25, 2018, Pacific Rim’s management informed all its construction-related employees for the IPI site that they should stop going to the IPI site until further notice from Pacific Rim’s management.
According to the lawsuit of Pacific Rim’s former employees, there were over 180 full-time construction-related employees of Pacific Rim at the time, including the plaintiffs.
Those 180 or more employees stopped going to work at the IPI site starting on or about July 26, 2018.
At the same time. Pacific Rim’s management was negotiating with IPI to resolve payment issues.
In the construction industry, it was common for a contractor to suspend work when there were payment issues and to resume work when payment issues were resolved, the former employees’ lawsuit stated.
On September 25, 2018, Pacific Rim gave notice to 180 or more employees that their status with Pacific Rim would be changed to layoff effective October 25, 2018, unless they were otherwise informed prior to October 25, 2018.
Pacific Rim informed its employees that it and IPI signed a notice of mutual termination regarding the construction contract between them in September 2018.
The plaintiffs, and other similarly situated employees, had been employed by Pacific Rim for more than six months by October 25, 2018, and were entitled to a 60-day notice of a mass layoff under the WARN Act, the lawsuit stated.
“Unbeknown to plaintiffs and other similarly situated employees, Pacific Rim’s management had expected that its construction contract with IPI would terminate early, had a promissory note drafted as early as July 2018 to deal with payment issues with IPI, and could have informed plaintiffs and other similarly situated employees months in advance of October 25, 2018 that they should not be expected to be called back at all,” the lawsuit added.
The plaintiffs are requesting the District Court for the NMI to certify their complaint as a class action; designate the plaintiffs as class representatives; and appoint attorney Nie as class counsel.
The lawsuit likewise requested the court to issue a judgment order in favor of the plaintiffs and other similarly situated former employees equal to the sum of their unpaid wages, salary, benefits, for 60 days, all determined in accordance with the WARN Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2104(a)(1)(A).
In addition, the lawsuit demanded reasonable attorney’s fees and cost associated with disbursements and costs for litigating the issues.
