Yanxia Li will also get liquidated damages amounting to $2,806 from Poong In Saipan Inc.
But Li was asked to leave the CNMI and will be disqualified for one year from being employed in the commonwealth.
Her employer, which has already shutdown, is permanently disqualified from hiring foreign workers in the CNMI.
Hearing Officer Jerry Cody said Li and Poong In were sanctioned for submitting false documentation to the Department of Labor and falsely advertising a job position.
In the hearing, Li admitted that while she was employed as a sewer receiving $3.05 per hour salary, she was actually employed as a sewing supervisor and was getting $1,600 per month.
“Both parties misled the department regarding the true nature of the employment,” Cody said in his order.
Li started working for Poong In in April 2007 under a nonresident worker permit that was scheduled to expire on April 19, 2008.
But in Nov. 2007, Li said she was advised by the company’s general manager, Byung Bok Lee, that her salary was “too high.”
Lee also advised her that she must stop working, which Li said was a breach of her contract.
On Jan. 28, 2008 Li filed a labor complaint against the company for failing to provide her with work from Nov. 2007 until the end of her contract.
In Jan. 2008, Poong In informed Labor that it was closing its factory.
Cody said in connection with the closure, the Labor Hearing Office revoked the permits of, and granted transfer relief to, all of Poong In’s foreign national employees including Li.
Li, however, failed to register or transfer.
During the post-hearing period, Li informed the Hearing Office that she did not wish to transfer to another employer in commonwealth.
In his order, Cody said Poong In failed to provide 23 weeks of work to Li from the time the contract was revoked to Jan. 28, 2008, when the factory closed.
At the hearing, Li testified that she actually stopped working on Aug. 20, 2007, when she was supervising production Lines A and B.
In July 2007, the company shut down its Line B, and on Aug. 20, 2007, the factory manager told Li to “take a few days off” because the factory was not busy.
About two weeks later, Li said she visited the factory and attempted to see the manager.
But from thereon she was not able to talk and see the manager.
She said over the next two to three months she telephoned occasionally and was always told that the boss was not around.
Lee testified that it was Li’s own decision to leave her work in Aug. 2007.
He said when they decided to shut down their Line B, he asked Li to supervise the sample room but she didn’t agree because it was a “lower position.”
Lee said Li never returned to work but was not terminated for her unexcused absences.
Cody said the testimony of Li was more credible than that of Lee.
Even if Lee’s testimony were to be believed, “this employer had the obligation to terminate complainant if she was not coming to work; yet, the employer did not do so,” Cody added.
