112 workers demand wages from former employer

Over 100 alien workers turned up at the Department of Labor yesterday to seek right to transfer to new employers and to demand payment of wages.

The workers form barely a third of the 363 employees left without jobs after garment firm N.E.T. Corp. shut down in April.

In an interview, Labor hearing officer Herb Soll said most of the former N.E.T. Corp. employees have found new employers. However, at least 112 workers remain without a job and have pending wage claims.

Of the 112, only 29 have been able to appear before the hearing as of 12 noon. Most of them were given memorandums to seek new employers within 45 days.

Soll asked the next 34 workers on the list to come back for the continuation of the hearing yesterday afternoon. The rest will have a chance to voice their concerns on Friday.

According to Soll, initial reports showed the 112 workers had combined claims amounting $110,000 but N.E.T. Corp. has already made partial payment to the workers, leaving a total balance of about $35,000.

“The company has indicated they will pay [the balance] starting next week. Naturally, they have to pay before we will release them of obligation,” Soll said.

Ye Ming Li, one of the workers present for the hearing, said he and his co-workers were not given notice of the company’s closure. He said that before the shutdown, the business owners called for a meeting and told the workers that they will be transferred to another garment factory. He said they were given the impression that they would be transferred permanently.

But when they moved to the new company, they were informed that they could only work under a temporary work authorization, which is renewable every three months.

Ye Ming Li, a mechanic, said he has worked for an electronics store since N.E.T. Corp.’s closure. He is currently out of work, as his TWA renewal application is still pending at the Labor Department.

“It is very hard to find a job, especially for my co-workers. Most of us are Chinese; very few speak English,” Ye Ming Li noted.

Aside from unpaid wages, N.E.T. Corp. owners also owe cash that they borrowed from some of the workers, Ye Ming Li said.

He related that before closing the business and leaving the island, the wife of owner Li Kow Wing approached some of the employees and asked them for money.

“They said they needed the money to pay the workers. They said we should lend them money if we don’t want the company to close,” said Ye Ming Li, who claimed he is owed $7,500 by the company owners.

He said he knows at least two other persons who are owed $12,500 and $10,000, respectively. He said one of the two workers even contemplated killing herself over the debt, as the money constituted her savings for the several years she worked on Saipan. Unemployed and without any money, she had no choice but to return to China, Ye Ming Li said.

“It’s really unfair,” he said.