PRFC Corp. and Normita E. Faura filed the petition for judicial review of a final administrative order of the Secretary of Labor through their counsel O’Connor Berman Dotts & Banes.
The petitioners are asking the court to grant them relief to reverse and set aside the orders of Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas and Labor’s hearing office and to authorize PRFC to employ Faura and/or other foreign national workers.
The petitioners are also asking for a stay in the order of the Labor secretary pending final disposition of this petition, and other relief the court may deem proper.
The petitioners said the decision of the hearing officer and the decision modified by the secretary of Labor “was erroneous, arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with the law, and unwarranted by the facts.”
Labor denied PRFC’s application for a foreign national worker entry permit for Faura in an administrative order dated Oct. 17, 2008.
On Feb. 23, 2009, San Nicolas affirmed in part and modified some parts of the decision released by the hearing officer on the appeal of the petitioners from the denial case.
Labor stated that PRFC Corp., a merchandise business operated in Kannat Tabla, had only foreign owners who are not on island.
Labor found that the business was operated by a foreign worker, Faura, which was a violation of the commonwealth law.
The hearing officer held that the financial business condition of the business did not support the proposed employment of the foreign worker, and that the business could no longer be owned or operated by Faura.
The hearing officer also barred the employer from permanently employing any foreign national worker, saying that Faura’s employment was an unauthorized and illegal arrangement.
The corporation was also ordered to cease operations immediately.
PRFC appealed the denial case on the ground that the order was overboard.
PRFC said Faura was not listed as a shareholder — therefore she cannot have a financial interest in the corporation.
But the hearing officer ruled otherwise.
The corporation argued that “it cannot be barred from hiring foreign workers because it had no expectation that it would have to defend itself from the consequences of a conclusion from the hearing officer that it engaged in fraudulent conduct ” — an argument which Labor found to have no merit.
The petitioner also argued that it cannot be ordered to stop doing business because it had no notice of this potential sanction, and therefore, the hearing officer’s order constituted a denial of due process.
Labor said in this case, the hearing officer had the option of assessing a $2,000 fine but instead, it chose to simply order the corporation to stop doing business.
San Nicolas modified the decision of the hearing officer and deleted the order for PRFC to stop doing business but imposed a fine of $1,000, to be paid no later than 30 days from the date of order which was Feb. 23.
