Governor promises wage law review

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has promised the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands that he would look into their recommendations that seek to amend the fair wage act, which grants additional compensation to local residents.

Last Friday, the governor met with HANMI members to discuss their concerns about the law they said would further drain their pockets at a time when profits are down because of poor tourist arrivals.

Tenorio, however, did not say whether he would accept or not the package of recommendations submitted to him.

“We will try to see what we can do,” Tenorio said, “I understand their situation but this will have to be reviewed.”

The implementing guidelines for the fair compensation law was signed last week by Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark Zachares and acting Attorney General Maya Kara.

It will be published in the Commonwealth Registry to solicit comments from the public.

Resident workers would have to wait for another two to three months before they could receive the benefits intended for employees whose hourly wages are still below the US minimum of $5.15.

Details of the implementing regulations were not provided to the media.

Businessmen have been pushing for the deferment of the implementation in fear the law would further hurt their pockets at this time of economic difficulties.

Local workers, on the other hand, complain of not receiving the benefits in their last pay checks, saying the law became effective after it was signed by the governor. The measure did not mention that it requires some kind of an implementing guideline.

Last month Tenorio approved the legislation that would finally implement the Resident Workers Fair Compensation Act, allowing locals still earning less than $5.15 in hourly wage to receive all benefits granted to foreign workers.

Under the law, locals whose wages are below the prevailing minimum level in the United States has the option to choose whether they want the benefits in kind or the cash equivalent of the subsidized food, housing, local transportation, health insurance and medical care received by nonresidents.

Any cash compensation benefit, the law says, shall be added to the resident worker’s base wage currently pegged at $3.15 per hour for non-garment employees.

The amendment to the fair compensation act hopes to clarify ambiguities in some of the provisions that have pushed back the implementation of the measure since it was put in place in 1995.