Rep. Edward Salas, R-Saipan, chairman of the subcommittee and member Rep. Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, also told Labor Secretary Gil San Nicolas they are concerned about the department’s new policy of referring unpaid administrative orders to Small Claims Court.
In a 12-page letter to San Nicolas, the two said reports reaching their office indicate that some foreign national workers were sent home without getting the monetary awards for their claims of unpaid wages, among others.
The Labor Department has passed on to the CNMI Superior Court unpaid administrative judgments involving foreign national workers.
Salas and Sablan said this practice “unduly burdens victims of labor abuse.”
“Victims must now not only pay the small claims fee and fill out the necessary small claims forms, they must also serve their claims on the employer who has failed to pay them wages earned and/or failed to follow the orders issued by the Department of Labor,” the two said in their joint letter to San Nicolas.
“While the department’s 4th Interim Progress Report stated that the Small Claims Court “is in a much better position than the Department to secure payment” of administrative orders, it did not explain why the Department of Labor is less capable than the Small Claims Court of enforcing Department of Labor orders,” they added.
In that same letter, the two lawmakers also divulged that the CNMI lost about $333,000 in potential federal grants by terminating the local labor department’s memorandum of understanding with the federal labor ombudsman.
Disagreements between these offices was the reason for the termination of the MOU.
The two legislators said this issue deprived the CNMI much needed federal assistance for the department.
