Hiring freeze stays despite 3-year limit

Despite protests from the business community, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio said the moratorium on the hiring of non-residents will stay even with the implementation of a controversial law mandating the exit of foreign workers from the Commonwealth after three years of employment.

The governor set aside appeals raised by the private sector for reprieve to ease business operations and preserve quality of service, particularly in the hotel industry, saying the measures were intended to encourage employers to hire local residents.

Businessmen led by the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands have sharply criticized the indefinite ban on hiring of foreign labor and the three-year limit because the twin laws would only increase the cost of doing business on the islands and turn off potential investors.

Instead of rewarding guest workers of incentives, HANMI said, the implementation of such laws only punish hardworking and loyal non-resident employees.

But Tenorio explained the private sector should look at the situation as an opportunity to train indigenous people to help them enter the work force.

“It’s about time that they should try training local people. I encourage them to hire the locals and I’ll try to work some incentives for them,” the governor said in interview Friday, without elaborating.

“We try to encourage them (locals) to get and education so we have to do something to accommodate these people,” he added.

In two to three years, the CNMI leader said his government expects 3,000 to 4,000 locals to be eligible for employment thus the private sector should be prepared to absorb them.

There are some 28,000 to 30,000 guest workers in the Commonwealth, holding more than 90 percent of the jobs in the private sector. Due to lack of skilled workers in the local labor pool, the sudden growth of the island economy in the past has forced employers to tap Asian workers, mostly Filipinos and Chinese.

However, the rise in the number of non-residents over the years has worried federal officials because of a host of social and economic problems spawned by their presence.

The local government has put in place the controversial measures to curb dependence on foreign manpower on the heels of increasing pressure from Washington to clamp down on non-resident workers.

The federal government has been pushing to apply US laws on immigration and labor in the Northern Marianas, accusing CNMI officials of failure to address labor abuses and tighten control on the entry of foreign workers.

The governor also appealed to members of the Legislature of revisit some provisions of the laws in order to “permit business to bring in people, especially those who are qualified, if necessary.”