Ex-Justice Villagomez prods Chamber on labor transfer

Should non-resident workers be allowed to transfer employment freely if they find a better paying job as soon as they arrive on the island?

As officials of the CNMI government struggle to find a solution on how to stave off federal takeover of labor and immigration, former Justice Ramon Villagomez posed this question to members of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce.

Villagomez yesterday asked members of the Chamber to make recommendations on the viability of changing the CNMI policy which would allow the transfer of non-resident workers without any restriction.

A fourth annual report published by the Office of Insular Affairs in December 1998 alleged that the CNMI government has allowed the practice of indentured labor on the island for many years.

Edward B. Cohen, special representative of US President Bill Clinton in the 902 talks had assailed what he described was the lack of freedom of non-resident workers to transfer employment anytime they wish to. He said the federal government wants to bring in labor conditions in the CNMI in the same standard of workers elsewhere in the United States.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has signed into law an amendment to the Non-Resident Workers Act, last year allowing alien workers to transfer employment at the end of their contract with the consent of the present employer.

However, the federal government is still not too happy about it claiming indentured labor or slavery still exist in the Northern Marianas.

Villagomez, a member of the CNMI panel in the 902 talks, said one way to eliminate allegations of indentured labor is to pass a law that will allow non-resident workers who arrived on the island to transfer without any restriction. This simply means that a non-resident worker who has only arrived here even for a week can be allowed to transfer as soon as possible if he or she gets a higher paying job, he said.

Before this could happen, employers should ask themselves how such a change would affect their businesses. If an employee comes here and decide to move after a week, what will happen to the expenses incurred by the employer who brought the non-resident worker to the CNMI?

Villagomez said this can be resolved by asking the would be employer of the non-resident worker who wants to transfer to reimburse the expenses of the businessman who brought the employee here.

Would such a change in policy ensure the CNMI officials that the federal government would no longer insist on the federalization of minimum wage and immigration?

Of course not. There is no real guarantee that such a change would satisfy the Clinton administration but this is another way of solving the labor and immigration problem locally, Villagomez said. After all, the governor maintains that local problems need local solutions.

But then again, Villagomez said a change in policy would allow employers to compete with each other in hiring non-resident workers who will be guaranteed of getting higher salaries.

Still, Villagomez said this does not mean that employers can hire non-resident workers anytime they want to. “We have to keep in mind of not avoid, at least slowdown the influx of a large number of guest workers who would become US citizens very quickly and overwhelm the local population,” said Villagomez.