Jerry Custodio, Human Dignity president, said the affected workers learned about the regulations when Labor began enforcing them.
“That’s a desperate move of the administration — they’re threatening the guest workers with deportation now that the CNMI federalization is already signed into law,” he told Variety.
He said his group supports Coalition of United Workers (NMI) president Irene Tantiado’s request for a forum regarding the new regulations.
Tantiado said they are concerned about the unexpected implementation of a new rule that requires a guest worker to notify Labor before he or she goes on a vacation.
But Labor Deputy Secretary Cinta M. Kaipat said they conducted community informational outreach meetings regarding the regulations.
“The department continues to field phone calls, e-mails inquiries, and walk-ins front the business community and members of the public who want to know more about our new labor reform law,” she said.
Labor, she added, has established procedures for creating a list of guest workers who have expired permits but have not left the commonwealth for various reasons.
Kaipat said the first list was published on May 12.
“Permit holders who have expired permits and who have not left the commonwealth and who have no application, case, or appeal pending in the department will be put on the overstayer list,” Kaipat said in her interim report on the implementation of the new labor reform law, P.L. 15-108, and its emergency regulations.
Kaipat said the list will be published twice, in two successive weeks, to give persons on the list an opportunity to appear before Labor and correct the record if any error has been made.
After the correction period expires, Labor will certify the list to the Division of Immigration and “we expect vigorous enforcement efforts to follow,” Kaipat said.
The department, she added, is examining its records from 2003 to 2007 to locate overstaying nonresidents.
She admitted that the process is complicated because the department’s records created prior to the Fitial administration “are not always complete.”
However, she said, the department already finished hearing almost all of the labor cases, “so the status of most workers has been determined” and this will make the process of identifying overstaying workers easier.
Also in her report, Kaipat said Labor has not implemented the provision of P.L. 15-108 on a bond for employer obligations to pay wages and repatriate workers.
She said the provision with respect to the government bond pool assumed the existence of a medical insurance pool. Government bonds do not cover medical expenses, she added.
“If we implemented the government bond pool before the medical insurance pool is ready to go, the taxpayer would not have full protection with respect to employers who went into the government pool because there would be no coverage for medical expenses as now exist under privately-issued bonds,” Kaipat’s report stated.
If an employer covered by a government bond goes bankrupt, the government bond will pay wages to the foreign workers but the Commonwealth Health Center will be left unpaid, she added.
