Assistant Deanne Siemer, the department’s volunteer legal adviser, said the two-year permit will help stabilize the workforce, protect employers and employees, and prevent undue damage to the economy.
The federalization statute, U.S. P.L. 110-229, takes effect on Nov. 28, 2009.
Siemer said Labor could no longer wait to see the outcome of the governor’s lawsuit against the federalization law.
“We had to act and we had to do something that would be operationally workable no matter how things turn out,” she said.
Under the umbrella permit, all the current permits and all labor department process will stay in place, she said in a press conference attended by guest workers and employers.
After Nov. 27, 2011, Siemer said Labor will have no authority to issue permits.
But the department can issue the two-year permit before Nov. 28, 2009, because U.S. P.L. 110-229 specifically provides that any CNMI-issued permit that is in existence during the transition period will be honored for at least two years, she said.
Siemer said the purpose of the two-year permit is to have a program that benefits both the federal and local agencies.
The federal agencies will have more time to get their permitting process into place, and the commonwealth will have a stable employment situation for at least two years.
Labor Hearing Officer Barry Hirshbein said everyone who is currently in the Labor system will receive an umbrella permit, which includes 240K permit holders, and those persons whose applications are currently in process, such as those in the deficiency and denial categories.
The 240K permit is for guest workers.
The umbrella permit, Hirshbein said, will be issued to person whose transfers are currently in process, and those who currently have extension of time to transfer, including those who have pending cases and who have pending appeals.
However, the permit will not be issued to persons who are on the overstayers list, and to those who hold entry permits other than the 240K such as students, investors, diplomats, journalists, immediate relatives and other categories in the commonwealth’s immigration system, he added.
Hirshbein said the two-year umbrella permit will be revoked if the holder violates the commonwealth’s labor laws.
“The two-year permit will allow employees to stay in the CNMI from Nov. 27, 2009, the day before the transition date, all the way to Nov. 27, 2011,” Siemer said.
She said said they are expecting to issue two-year permit to more than 13,000 persons in the commonwealth.
“No fee will be charge because this is simply an administrative action to allow workers currently in our system to have status to stay in the commonwealth,” she said.
The two-year permit will be issued through administrative action and Labor will print the permits automatically from the data of its automation system.
No application will be required for this permit because Labor already has all the necessary information about each of the persons who would be covered by such permit, Siemer said.
The umbrella permit will be held by the foreign national worker, and the worker will take this permit with him or her wherever he or she is employed.
The permit is an authorization to work in the commonwealth, so long as Labor requirements are complied with, Siemer said.
“So what we exactly design fits in the federalization system, it fits in the commonwealth system, it protects the maximum number of people possible because in any transition we need stability in the system,” she said, adding that the new policy will help the CNMI recover from its “terrible economic downturn.”
Siemer said the contracts, bonds, health certificates, and other qualifications on which current permits are based will remain in effect.
Labor will accept applications for regular 240K permits until Oct. 30, 2009.
“Anyone outside the current Labor system or persons holding permits other than 240K has only until Oct. 30 to file an application to get into the Labor system. Anyone now outside the current Labor system who filed by Oct. 30 will get a two-year umbrella permit that will protect them while their application is pending,” Siemer said.
Under the existing transfer system, Labor asks those who request for an extension of time to transfer to sign an agreement to meet their own medical expenses and repatriation expenses that are not covered by an employer.
“We will use that approach here as well, and ask the permit holder to sign the standard agreement set out on the face of the permit,” Siemer said.
Once the two-year permit is available, Labor will publish a schedule so workers can come to its office or to other convenient locations to sign the permit and pick up a copy.
The department is expecting to print the permits by Oct. 20, and will start distributing them on Oct. 22.
The detailed scheduled will be announced next week, and it will be posted at Labor, on its Web site and in the newspapers.
