Senator works to ease labor transfer
The legislature will ease employment transfer for foreign workers in the Northern Marianas in an attempt to deal with concerns from Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) over the local policy after meeting with CNMI officials.
A bill to be sponsored by Senate President Paul A. Manglona is expected to address the problem, but the upper house has yet to finalize the legislation seen as part of ongoing labor and immigration reforms on the island.
According to the Senate leader, the measure will consider the expenses incurred by employers in recruiting workers from abroad when the government agrees to ease the transfer policy.
“The intent there is to make the transfer easier so that in a way it will make the employers treat their workers better and provide good working conditions and better wages,” Manglona told in an interview.
Although the proposal came immediately after meeting in Washington D.C. with Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over insular areas, he maintained it is an “attempt” to address his concern.
“It’s nothing new what Chairman Murkowski had said. We are aware of that,” Manglona pointed out.
Island leaders, led by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, Manglona and House Speaker Diego T. Benavente, met with Murkowski two weeks ago to drum up support against legislation in the U.S. Congress that will strip CNMI authority over its labor and immigration standards.
One of the issues discussed was the transferability of guest workers on the island, according to former Justice Ramon Villagomez, who was part of the delegation.
He prodded members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in a recent meeting to make recommendations on the viability of the changing the CNMI policy which would allow the transfer of nonresident workers without any restriction.
While the Tenorio administration has signed an amendment to the Nonresident Workers Act allowing alien workers to transfer employment at the end of the contract with the consent of their present employer, federal officials have been pressing for less restrictive policy.
