Federal Labor Ombudsman Office for refusing to provide the CNMI Department of Labor with a labor administrative order and sworn statements from guest workers.
“The remarks in the labor report launched against the federal ombudsman are totally inappropriate and unjustified,” Doromal said, adding that the Department of Labor should have the records of its own orders.
Kaipat stated in her interim progress report on the new labor reform law, or P.L. 15-108, that the Department of Labor and the Federal Labor Ombudsman’s Office have failed to reach an agreement on how to deal with $6.1 million in unpaid wages.
Doromal said Labor should be sending the uncollected, past due judgments to the CNMI Attorney General’s Office for collection.
“Instead this government puts the responsibility of enforcing judgments on the victims,” the former Rota school teacher said.
Labor, she added, is sending a message to the federal government that it will continue with its “unconstitutional practices until someone stops them.”
She added, “The message DOL is sending to the community is that employers can violate labor laws, and not be held accountable. They are also sending a message to guest workers that they do not care if they receive justice while working on U.S. soil; that they will use them and send them home like a disposable, replaceable commodity.”
For her part, Coalition of United Workers (NMI) president Irene Tantiado said Kaipat should stop blaming Federal Labor Ombudsman Jim Benedetto.
“If they have been monitoring abuses, DOL would have discovered these abuses long time ago,” Tantiado said.
She said it was only when “somebody took an effort to take up the issue and document it” that Kaipat became “too eager to get copies of sworn statements which DOL should have gathered in the first place.”
Tantiado said should Labor needs volunteers to dig up its records, contact the awardees and facilitate the release of the checks, the coalition is more than willing to offer assistance.
“The problem is Ms. Kaipat doesn’t respond to e-mails or phone calls,” Tantiado said. “Why is she publishing her e-mail address to the public when she only responds to the people she likes. DOL should not pass blame but instead own up to their inefficiency in acting on this issue.”
Doromal said while Labor has issued a “brash statement that they are not a “collection agency” they are also not “aggressively enforcing judgments against law-breaking, cheating employers.”
The administrative orders issued by Labor, she added, are “ meaningless pieces of paper.”
According to Doromal, if only Labor officials had done their job properly there would not have been $6.1 million in unpaid judgments owed to guest workers.
“Their new policies need to be challenged in court as soon as possible to prevent further injustice and further suffering,” she said.
