TWENTY-SEVEN employers have been permanently disqualified from hiring non-resident workers in 2001 for grave violations of labor laws, according to the Department of Labor and Immigration’s annual report.
DOLI said most of these employers left the CNMI and abandoned their employees.
According to DOLI, some employers had tried to re-open their businesses a few years after the disqualification order.
“This time, we don’t want to allow companies to violate labor laws again. The government needs to protect the employees from such employers,” Becky Cruz of DOLI’s Hearing Office said.
Employers are banned from hiring foreign workers when they violate the Alien Labor Rules and Regulations and other related laws such as abandonment of their employees and serious breach of contract.
The annual report also showed that from January to December last year, the Hearing Office conducted 332 hearings on labor disputes.
The office also recommended the awarding of over half a million in monetary award and fines in favor of the aggrieved employees.
The office awarded a total of $456,945 monetary rewards and $186,850 in fines against employers.
Statistics showed that the office granted a transfer relief to 130 employees who filed labor complaints against their employers.
The report also showed that 65 foreign workers had been deported.
