THE previous administration granted 618 exemptions from the Hiring Moratorium Act which limits this privilege to employers who can meet the minimum investment requirement of $5 million.
Based on statistics from the Division of Labor, 750 employers requested exemptions from the hiring ban between 1998 to 2001.
Of this figure, 618 were approved, 122 were denied and 10 were recalled.
In an interview, Labor and Immigration Secretary Joaquin A. Tenorio said the issuance of exemptions cannot be labeled as illegal or legal because it is based on the employers’ needs.
However, Tenorio said DOLI will now only approve exemptions to employers who can meet the requirements of the Act, or Public Law 11-6.
On Saipan, the exemption can only be granted to employers with at least $5 million investments. On Rota, an employer should have invested at least $250,000, Tenorio said.
“Exemptions are based on the law. We make recommendations to the governor if it complies with the law. But whether or not it would be granted, we don’t make that distinction here,” he said.
He said employers seeking an exemption must formally request the governor and explain why they should be allowed to hire new foreign workers.
That request would then be forwarded to DOLI for review based on the requirements of the law.
The only exemption to this requirement are foreign workers belonging to critical service professions such as educators, nurses and other medical professionals.
Tenorio is planning to meet with employers to address their concerns on the exemption issue.
“We’re trying to clarify this, perhaps by developing some regulations to clarify what these exemptions are and how you can comply with it,” he told Variety.
P.L. 11-6 was enacted in 1998 to address mounting concerns in Washington, D.C. about local labor and immigration policies that allowed the population of non-resident workers to outnumber locals.
