CUC scrambles to renew permits of 20 foreign workers

Some foreign workers of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. may have their CW work permits not renewed in time for their expiration on Dec. 31, 2015.

In a special meeting yesterday, board members, CUC managers, and supervisors as well as its Human Resource department discussed the renewal process of the 20 workers whose permits will end this year.

It was learned that the job vacancy announcements for the positions were published just last Friday.

“We’re used to the very last minute. We announced a week ago [and] we have another week and a half before we can process,” director Joe Torres said.

Power generation manager Richard Cano said he is worried that some of his workers will not be renewed on time, which would require those workers to stop working.

“We’ve been asking them, ‘When are you going to renew our guys who are expiring?’” Cano said. “That’s what I’m worried about. I’ve been telling them that we need to renew them as soon as possible because about 20 of them will be expiring. If we lose these guys, then we are in trouble.”

Cano said they experienced the same problem last year. “Some of my employees, during the expiration, they were not working. Their renewal was delayed so they stopped working.”

Asked about the timeline of the renewal, HR senior technician Frank Matsunaga said they are looking at mid-January for the whole process.

Torres suggested the possibility of a waiver. “I’ve seen companies that have been waived. We should get to legal, and let’s go up to Labor Department and ask for that waiver so that we can expedite the process and turn it in,” he said.

CUC chief legal counsel James Sirok pointed out a policy that the board adopted last year to reduce the number of CUC’s foreign workers. A 5-percent reduction in the 43 CW workers of CUC, or about two personnel, will be implemented.

“I also want to remind the board of the policy that was made last year that you’re going to have a reduction. Every time you’re going to renew, you’re not going to renew the whole 100 percent, you’re going to reduce them,” Sirok said.

The board also recognized that a problem with their processes stems from CUC’s lack of an HR manager, which has been vacant since July.

According to acting executive director John Riegel, there are already about seven who applied for the position and that they are continuing with the hiring process.