Legislature OKs public hearing for fair wage act
Legislative leaders yesterday assured the business sector that they would call a public hearing on the Resident Workers Compensation Act to try to ease worries by companies on the recently-signed law scheduled to be implemented within the next few weeks.
House Speaker Diego T. Benavente and Senate President Paul A. Manglona expressed support on the request by the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands for a hearing to consider their amendment to the law.
Lawmakers may mediate a meeting between the Attorney General’s Office, the labor department and the private sector in efforts to tackle various concerns on the issue, according to Benavente.
“Businesses should discuss their recommendations with the AG and DOLI officials,” he told in an interview, adding that if these can be inserted into the implementing regulations of the law, then there might be no need for a hearing.
“But if those amendment will be needed to come in the form of a legislation, then we will have to do that,” the speaker explained.
Manglona likewise underscored the need to resolve differences between the government and the private sector before the law goes into effect. CNMI officials have agreed to suspend its implementation until May 15 pending questions on the guidelines.
“We have promised the Chamber to hold a public hearing if there are still questions on the law,” he said in a separate interview. “We will do that so that there will be no more problems.”
In their letters to the two presiding officers of the Legislature, HANMI and the Chamber have warned the government that failure to consider the recommended changes in Public Law 11-74 would result in gross inequities.
Signed by the governor last month, the law has mandated local companies to extend the benefits granted nonresident workers through medical insurance, free housing, lodging and transportation to their resident employees through in-kind or their cash equivalent.
Locals receiving wage below the prevailing minimum level of $5.15 per hour in the United States are expected to benefit from this new government policy — an amendment to an earlier law that was largely ignored due to DOLI’s failure to adopt implementing guidelines.
