337 checks returned for insufficient addresses

About 337 checks that are part of the over $5 million being sent to 29,700 workers in connection with the settlement in the class-action against the CNMI garment industry and some retailers have been returned due to insufficient addresses.

Former Judge Timothy H. Bellas, chairman of the Garment Oversight Board, said the U.S. Postal Office returned the checks to the board on Friday due to insufficient addresses.

“They [claims administrator Gilardi & Co. LLC] sent the checks to these people…they just put the names there, and they just put Saipan MP. No P.O. Box, no nothing, so the post office stamped them insufficient address,” Bellas said.

He also disclosed that a lawyer from a garment factory contacted him, saying the factory also received a bunch of checks for the workers.

“But the workers have long since left the Commonwealth so they don’t know what to do with the checks either. I said, ‘I’m sending them back,’ so I don’t know what you guys are going to do with the checks,” Bellas said.

He said he is going to send back these checks to Gilardi and Co. in California.

Bellas advised the people who have claims or have questions to contact directly with Lisa Poncia of Gilardi at 800-496-8306 or at her email address at SaipanSettlement@Gilardi.com.

About 150 people have showed up at Bellas’ office since Monday, saying they were not on the list and that they are members of the class that are eligible for settlement.

“Now that checks are coming out, they are going, ‘Wait a minute, what about us.’ That’s the situation,” he said.

Bellas reiterated that these returned checks will go back to the GOB pool, pursuant to the settlement agreement.

“We’re going to try to either pay the same people who did claim the checks and cashed them or we are going to conduct further monitoring activities… That’s what the settlement agreement calls for,” he said.

Bellas said the amounts of the checks are different.

“For instance, this one here is only $72.27. It turns out some of them are for much larger amount. We had people call us who had received multiple checks in the amount of $700,” he explained.

This is so, Bellas said, because there are different kinds of members of the class.

He said he doesn’t know the way the payments were computed.

“But there’s like at least three different classes of members of the class, depending on how long you were employed here. They’re computing the payments differently so people should not be surprised if one person gets one check and another person gets a different amount. The terms of the settlement call for them to compute in different ways,” he said.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson has ordered the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the class-action to provide a written report to GOB as to how much of the over $5 million in checks being sent to 29,700 workers are returned or uncollected.

Munson directed the attorneys for the plaintiffs or the claims administrator, Gilardi & Co. LLC, to submit such report to GOB no later than Feb. 2, 2007.

Munson said the checks will expire on Jan. 26, 2007.

Bellas earlier said workers who received the checks should immediately cash the checks.

Bellas, along with retired judges Cruz Reynoso and Richard P. Guy, comprise the GOB. It was set up pursuant to the settlement to oversee the monitoring program of the garment industry.

The checks are being sent not only to Saipan, but also to China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and other countries where there are workers who were part of the class-action suit.