Their counsel, Steve Woodruff, said he will try to get the unpaid wages from the employers or from the bonding companies.
In his meeting with the United Workers Movement, NMI members on Sunday, Woodruff said he will be employing different approaches in pursuing the case of the nonresident guest workers.
He said his approach is different from that of Atty. Robert Myers, who filed a class-suit representing over 130 guest workers to the court demanding the secretary of the Department of Labor to enforce the mandated law to collect unpaid wages from their employers or bonding companies.
Woodruff said he will directly file the complaint to the Labor Department.
On June 17, Associate Judge David A. Wiseman granted the workers’ request for an order to the Labor Director to issue Temporary Work Authorization to each worker, pending a review of their lawsuit.
The order covers the 127 guest workers that Myers represent.
“What Myers is doing is very good and very important. The work he has done to help workers has made a lot of difference. But it take more than one lawyers fighting to solve this problem,” Woodruff said.
He said while he got a positive feedback from the workers in the meeting there’s a need to have a collaborative approach by pooling all the resources available.
In this litigation, Woodruff said his office will be collecting $100 from each worker for paper works, filing, copying, rental, utilities and legal services.
Although he admitted it would be a burden to the guest workers “we cannot function without money.”
Woodruff said his office will also ask authorities to let the workers stay on island pending the resolution of their administrative cases.
Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta Kaipat said the Department is expected to complete the hearing on bond claims by September.
