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HANMI, governor to talk wage law changes
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Posted on Apr 19 1999
The Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands will meet with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio this week to discuss amendments to “The Resident Workers Fair Compensation Act.”
According to Ron Sablan, president of HANMI, the hotel association believes that amendments must be immediately carried out since the implementing regulations failed to cure the vague provisions in Public Law 11-74.
The chief executive has earlier promised to the members of the association that amendments will be made if the problem in connection with the law is not resolved by the implementing regulations.
Sablan said the hotel association is not against compensating local workers fairly but there are difficulties in implementing it because certain provisions are ambiguous.
He said hoteliers are apprehensive that the law would attract a series of lawsuits as businesses would have difficulty in complying. The association would rather work with the CNMI leaders to get the list of questions resolved before such trouble begins.
HANMI earlier met with Senate President Paul Manglona and House Speaker Diego T. Benavente who also expressed concern on the effects of the law.
The legislative leaders have also promised to conduct public hearing in a separate meeting with the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in case there are still problems with the law after the implementing regulations have been published. A 30-day period will be given for local comments.
Public Law 11-74 which provides local residents earning less than an hourly wage of $5.15 to receive all benefits extended to foreign workers as mandated by existing laws, was signed by the governor last month.
However, Sablan noted that there were no formulas attached to the law specifying how to calculate the value of which benefits, fro which categories, over which period of time.
“This law really opens up a can of worms because it was so briefly worded. In these economic times, we really can’t afford to create further instability,” he said.
