“The foreign workers who came to our sessions provided valuable input and we are working out procedures to implement some of their advice,” Kaipat said, adding that consultation, rather than statements to the media, is a better way to make progress.
Kaipat said the Department of Labor recently sponsored a public meeting to solicit suggestions from foreign workers.
Labor, she added, wants to improve the way it serves the public.
She said that although United Workers Movement, NMI president Irene Tantiado was not involved in the discussions, the workers advocate submitted her recommendations through a letter to the newspaper.
Doromal, in contrast, “never visited the Department of Labor and, to my knowledge, has corresponded directly with the Department of Labor only once — to instigate my removal as an employee of the Department of Labor, among other things.”
Kaipat said Doromal’s letter, in its reincarnated form, was sent again to the secretary of Labor by Reps. Tina Sablan, Ind-Saipan, and Edward Salas, R-Saipan,
“All of Ms. Doromal’s communications have been made through the media,” Kaipat said.
Doromal, for her part, said she has been sending her letters to the Department of Labor.
“Over the years I have visited and corresponded with various officials of Labor over fifty times,” the former Rota teacher said.
From 1991 to 1995, Doromal said, she kept a log of phone calls, meetings and correspondence with CNMI and federal agencies, officials, and guest workers.
She added that some of her letters went unanswered.
She said she have written reports with suggestions on policies and regulations that were submitted to CNMI officials.
Doromal furnished Variety copies of her letters addressed to Labor Director Barry Hirshbein and Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas.
Doromal said in Jan. 2008 she submitted lengthy comments on the controversial labor law, P.L. 15-108.
On May 23, 2008, she said, she sent e-mails to San Nicolas, Hirshbein and Assistant Attorney General Eleanor Nisperos but “not one of them responded.”
The e-mails contained a letter written in response to what Doromal described as inappropriate remarks made by Kaipat, as well as questions and remarks on Labor procedures and policies.
“If officials within the CNMI Department of Labor would like to have a dialogue, then perhaps they would like to start by answering the letters that they received on June 11, 2008 that were ignored by [its] officials,” Doromal said.
She said Kaipat’s claim that her letter was “reincarnated” by Sablan and Salas is “false.”
