ATTORNEY Michael Dotts who represents Imperial Pacific International LLC, has informed the federal court that payments owed under the consent judgment have not been paid and that IPI has insufficient funds to pay them now.
IPI is requesting a payment plan, he added.
He also told the court that no agreement has been reached on a deposit to an escrow account to secure payment of future payrolls.
“IPI lacks funds to make the deposit that the [U.S.] Department of Labor has requested,” he said.
District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona last week held IPI, IPI Holdings Ltd. and IPI chair Cui Li Jie in contempt of court for violating the consent judgment and for not paying their current employees for over two months.
The court issued a one-week stop work order at IPI’s hotel-casino construction site in Garapan.
The sanctions imposed on IPI CNMI, IPI Holdings and Cui Li Jie include a payment of $788,022.54 and any other wages due to current IPI employees; and $1,379,426 in wages and overtime compensation for services rendered in 2016 and 2017. These payments are due by Jan. 28.
IPI was also ordered to file a status report with the court on the $788,022.54 back wages no later than Friday last week.
Dotts on Friday told the court that the IPI workers’ salaries for payroll periods 21 through 26 were distributed on Jan. 21.
In his latest status report filed Wednesday, Dotts said: “Power and water have been restored to the housing for IPI’s employees. Vestcor Village is being closed and the employees living there will be transferred to Queens Apartment in Garapan. Queens Apartment has water and power. There have been some complaints about trash at Queens and IPI will ensure Queens is in a sanitary condition.”
IPI has requested the court to exempt five maintenance employees from the stop work order.
“These employees are necessary to remove trash and address maintenance issues with the employee housing,” Dotts said.
He added that three meals per day are being provided to all employees. “The food is prepared in the kitchen at the casino resort. Meals are served at the casino resort. Food is also delivered to the residences of the employees,” he said.
Payroll
As for payroll, Dotts said partial distribution for pay periods 1 and 2 for 2021 took place on Wednesday.
“Two categories of employees are under audit, but the majority of employees will receive their pay for periods 1 and 2 today [Wednesday]. Payroll Number 1 was due on January 1, 2021. Payroll Number 2 was due on January 15, 2021.”
Paychecks for payroll period No. 3 for 2021 are to be distributed on Jan. 29, 2021, Dotts said.
However, funding for pay period No. 3 has not yet been received by IPI, he added. “It is unlikely that IPI will be distributing Payroll Number 3 on Jan. 29, 2021.”
Dotts said the distribution of the payroll for pay periods 21 through 26 was completed last week.
“IPI is in the process now of determining the location of employees who did not pick up their checks and arranging payment to individuals no longer on Saipan,” he said.
According to Dotts, there were issues with the payment of severance pay due under some nonresident worker contracts; the payment of paid time off; and the payment of the three-fourths guarantee when the employment of a foreign worker was ended early.
“These issues go back to August 2020. IPI has not yet paid these monies.”
Dotts also informed the court that all H-2B visas for IPI employees were revoked on Jan. 12.
He said he was not aware of this when he appeared before the court during the previous hearing.
Repatriation
The revocation of all H-2B visas means hundreds of workers need to be repatriated now, he said. “IPI is working on the repatriation of its foreign workers.”
But repatriation has been made difficult because the main hubs for air travel in Asia (Manila, Incheon and Tokyo) are closed to transiting passengers due to the discovery of new strains of Covid-19, Dotts said.
IPI employees will have to transit through Los Angeles or San Francisco to return to their home countries, he added.
Dotts said IPI has requested relief from the USDOL order canceling all H-2B visas.
IPI is hopeful that not all of its H-2B employees will have to depart, but IPI management has been advised to schedule the repatriation of all H-2B employees now, Dotts also said.
IPI is also requesting the court to exempt from the stop work order two employees working in the human resources department.
“These employees are necessary to assist with the repatriation of workers. Further, the [U.S.] Department of Labor has started a new investigation and these IPI staffers are needed to assist with the USDOL investigation,” Dotts said.
IPI, he added, has not purged itself of contempt but is making progress.
