Labor sanctions security services agency for numerous regulatory violations

The Department of Labor Administrative Hearing Office has sanctioned the owner of a security services agency for numerous regulatory violations, including failure to submit a timely workforce plan, total workforce listings, and failure to post employer declarations for 23 job vacancy announcements.

Administrative hearing officer Jerry Cody sanctioned Md. Nurul Islam Bhuiyan, owner of Island Protection Services, with a $1,500 fine.

Cody said $750 of the fine shall be suspended for two years, then extinguished, on condition that the employer pays the remaining portion of the fine and commits no violation of CNMI Labor law during the two-year period.

Cody reversed Labor’s Citizen Availability and Citizen Job Placement Section’s denial of a certification of good standing for Bhuiyan provided that he complies with this order.

He instructed Labor to issue a certificate of good standing to Bhuiyan as soon as the latter has paid the $750 portion of the sanction.

Cody said if Bhuiyan fails to comply with his continuing obligation to follow with Labor statutes and regulations during the suspension period, he shall be subject to a possible reinstatement of the suspended sanction plus additional monetary sanctions, after a due process hearing on this issue.

According to Labor records, Bhuiyan failed to submit total workforce listings for four quarters in 2016, as required by the employer rules and regulations.

Bhuiyan failed to submit a workforce plan for 2016 in accordance with the NMI Administrative Code regulations.

He also failed to post employer declarations to responders regarding 23 posted job vacancy announcements (JVAs) from 2015 until the present.

The employer testified at the hearing last Aug. 7 at Labor’s administrative hearing office that prior to Labor’s Citizen Availability and Citizen Job Placement Section’s denial of certificate of good standing issued in May 2017, he had not realized that he was obligated to submit total workforce listings on a quarterly basis.

Bhuiyan said as soon as he received the denial, he took immediate steps to correct the deficiencies.

After he received the denial, he prepared and submitted all of the missing total workforce listings.

After the Aug. 17 hearing, Bhuiyan submitted an amended total workforce listing on the second quarter of 2017 that corrected erroneous entries.

At the hearing, Bhuiyan admitted that he had not known about the regulations requiring submission of a workforce plan for 2016 until he received the denial.

Bhuiyan then submitted a current workforce plan for 2017, which Labor Citizen Availability and Citizen Job Placement Section representative deemed acceptable.

Job Placement alleged that Bhuiyan had failed to post timely employer declarations on Labor’s website in connection with 23 JVAs that he posted during the period from 2015 through March 2017.

At the hearing, Bhuiyan stated that he had not understood his legal obligation to post responses, but he noted that since receiving the denial, his staff has reviewed all job applicants’ resumes and conducted in person or phone interviews with all interested applicants.

Cody determined that Bhuiyan’s workforce satisfies the minimum 30 percent ration of U.S. status-qualified workers that is required under the regulations.

At the hearing, the Job Placement representative testified that he would not object to reversal of the denial, provided that Bhuiyan is sanctioned monetarily for failure to submit census-related documents in 2016 and his failure to post employer declarations during a three-year period.

As mitigating factors, Cody noted that Bhuiyan filed his missing documentation after he received the denial; made a concerted effort to review and consider U.S. citizen job applicants for the positions he posted in March 2017; and is currently above the minimum workforce participation goal of 30 percent with respect to its total, full-time workforce.