Robert Myers said he informed the department’s then-legal counsel, Assistant Attorney General Eleanor Nisperos, about a settlement but received no reply.
Myers said he wrote to Nisperos on Aug. 20 on behalf of his client Myla G. Imperial regarding her monetary award from an administrative order.
“To date the enforcement has gone unsettled or remains uncollected,” Myers said in his letter. “And I am kindly asking you to advise your client, Labor, to do so and finally resolve this matter before it goes to the commonwealth courts for judicial review or mandamus relief.”
He said based on his legal research regarding longstanding problems of enforcement of administrative orders, the law is clear.
“Unfortunately for Labor, the rule of law mandates that it enforce such awards, rather than declare a new policy of Labor to either not enforce or advise such awardees to seek the help of the commonwealth courts,” he added.
But despite his insistence on Labor’s responsibility, Myers said he never got a reply from the department.
He said Labor’s Administrative Hearing Officer Jerry Cody later announced that the department’s new policy of not enforcing administrative orders.
But Cody also said that Labor will go after the surety bonds for a nonresident workers, from time to time, whenever a case involves repatriation.
“I should note that my client (and many, many others similarly situated and currently residing and working in the commonwealth legally and lawfully) is prepared fully to seek judicial review if Labor does not follow its mandate and return the monetary funds from the surety bond executed in her favor,” Myers told Nisperos said. “And she has indicated the need to ask the court to compel Labor to do the precise exact same for all others out there like her.”
Myers filed the lawsuit on Thursday last week against Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas, Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta Kaipat and Labor Director Barry Hirshbein.
