Local labor pool urged • ‘It’s about time we train our own people’

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday prodded the business community to start developing a local labor pool to lessen CNMI’s dependence on foreign workers amid plans of the Legislature to lift the indefinite freeze on hiring of guest employees.

Although the governor underscored the need to employ foreign workers in the Northern Marianas for certain categories, he said the private sector should train local residents to take on the jobs that will be left by alien workers.

“I think it’s about time that we train our own people,” Tenorio said in an interview, “I would like to see the business community started training our local people and take care of some of the jobs.”

Barely a year after putting in place a legislation banning the hiring of non-resident workers, some legislators are weighing the possibility of amending the law, widely viewed as a deterrent to takeover attempts of the federal government worried over the growing presence of guest employees in the Northern Marianas.

The measure was passed just before the governor appeared in a crucial oversight hearing of the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which heard several proposals to apply federal laws on immigration and minimum wage to CNMI.

But a parade of requests from businessmen seeking exemptions have led to the review of the legislation, and some lawmakers agreed that restrictions should be eased since the law has “plugged” some of the loopholes in the hiring system that has led to the unhampered entry of non-resident workers.

The governor is also banking on the assurance of the Public School System and the Northern Marianas College that the commonwealth could produce enough local manpower to fill in the vacuum to be left by alien workers in light of a proposal to limit to three years the stay of guest employees.

Due to cheap labor and lack of skilled workers among the locals, most businessmen in the islands rely on Asians, most Chinese and Filipinos, to fill in the shortage in labor pool.

“I hope by then we have a manpower available, however, I still maintain that we still need non-resident workers in many areas,” he said.

The private sector is at loggerheads with lawmakers over the measure they described as impractical and costly. The Saipan Chamber of Commerce said the proposal will unnecessarily burden employers with expenses at a time when profits are down because of the Asian currency crisis.

Businessmen also complained they will have to face the bureaucratic redtape in processing work permits and the tedious task of training new employees.