BARTENDER Chun Jee “Eric” Wong should receive a total of $45,739.35 in back wages but his former employer, Cheers Karaoke Bar owner Shun Lin Zeng refuses to pay, the U.S. Department of Labor told Wong.
Chun Jee Wong stages a protest on Thanksgiving last year at the Marina Heights I Building which houses the office of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Wong, a Malaysian national who sued Zeng and her companies Ping Shun Corporation and Plumeria International Corp. Ltd., for unpaid overtime work, provided Variety a copy of the email he received from U.S. Labor’s Wage Hour Division,
It informed him that “total back wages of $45,739.35 was computed and an equal amount of liquidated damages were also computed for you.”
But U.S. Labor also told him that the “firm refused to pay back wages and the liquidated damages.”
In his complaint against his former employer, Wong alleged that he was not paid for the overtime work he performed for Cheers Karaoke Bar from June 2019 to December 2020. He had a CNMI-Only Transitional Worker or CW-1 permit when he worked for the bar.
Wong first filed his complaint with CNMI Labor on Sept. 8, 2021, but it was dismissed because of the six-month statute of limitations. CNMI Labor also told Wong that his immigration status as a CW is not protected by the CNMI preferential law.
Wong staged a protest outside the U.S. Labor office in Puerto Rico on Thanksgiving last year before formally filing his complaint with the federal department.
“This is not about money. All I seek is justice. I just would like U.S. Labor to acknowledge my complaint,” Wong said in an interview.
