The governor made the request to board chairman Timothy Bellas after learning that the remaining money from the Garment Workers Trust Fund would be donated to charity.
He wrote Bellas, who oversees the trust fund, to ask that workers with proven claims be provided compensation from the trust fund.
The trust fund opted not to compensate former garment workers in cases where their former employers and bonding companies have gone out of business.
“A distribution from the Garment Workers Trust Fund, perhaps in an equal amount, to each worker with proven claims that remain unpaid seems the best way to carry out the original intent of the litigation that created the fund,” said Fitial.
“Each worker’s bona fides can be documented from Labor Department records and an agreed list could be prepared for you in a very short time,” he added.
Last month, at least five displaced garment workers sent a letter to the Marianas Variety asking the board to help them return to China.
The five — Ma Hui, Chen Qiuxiang, Feng Xiaoqing, Liu Weiyong, and Zhao Yunjie — questioned a statement that Bellas supposedly made that the fund would only be used to help workers in emergency situations.
Fitial citing information he got from Deputy Labor Secretary Cinta Kaipat, said there are some jobless former garment workers who wish to go home but lack the resources to purchase return tickets.
The cash-strapped government had also run out of resources to extend help to the displaced workers.
“I am concerned about the welfare of our displaced former garment workers. I hope the Garment Workers Trust Fund will seriously consider my request to assist displaced workers with repatriation costs if they cannot legally find re-employment in the commonwealth,” said the governor.
