‘Allot more resources to DOL’

The government should allocate more of its resources to the Department of Labor if it is serious about addressing workers’ complaints, federal ombudsman Jim Benedetto said.

Speaking at the Saipan Rotary Club meeting yesterday, Benedetto listed various problems at the Department of Labor, including the delay in enforcement of workers’ complaints, and unavailability of labor and repatriation bonds.

He reported that Labor currently has only five investigators and one full-time hearing officer—Jerry Cody.

“Thus far in 2004, Labor have had over 500 complaints filed. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that that is probably too many complaints for five people to investigate and do so quickly,” he noted.

He noted that due to Labor’s manpower shortage, it is not uncommon for even simple workers’ complaints to get acted upon.

“For instance, if a nonresident worker comes to the [Federal] Ombudsman [Office] and says he hasn’t been paid for 22 weeks, that is something the CNMI statutes make an issue to investigate,” Benedetto said.

He noted that CNMI law allows labor investigators to visit an employer and look at the books to see who have been paid and who have not. Yet, the Labor Department takes about six months to investigate such a claim, he said.

Benedetto added that it usually takes about another year for the hearing office to set a date for adjudication of the complaint and still two and a half years to write an opinion.

Further, he pointed out that there is currently no facility for the enforcement of labor judgments. Therefore, the responsibility to collect awarded amounts usually falls on the worker, who will have to file an action at the Superior Court and wait for another year to get an order.

“Of course, this is an allocation of resources issue. But if we’re serious about fairly and efficiently adjudicating complaints, we’ll have to commit some resources to the Department of Labor,” he said.

The federal ombudsman also raised concern about the inability of some insurance companies to pay for labor and repatriation bonds, which are supposed to serve as a safety net when employers leave the CNMI or become insolvent.

“I’ve spoken with the insurance commissioner and he candidly told me that of the 12 or so companies that issue labor bonds, five of them would not be able to ever shoulder any significant burden if there was a closure and there were perhaps 100 plus workers who lose their jobs and need to be repatriated,” Benedetto said.

He said Labor actually have existing enforcement powers allowing it to sanction companies or refuse labor bonds from companies that don’t pay, and to boost up the requirement for bonds.

Labor law could also be amended to allow the Attorney General’s Office to institute collection efforts against employers that owe back wages, he added.