Babauta to push amendment to garment cap measure

The chair of the House Commerce and Tourism Committee will seek a meeting with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to clarify the intent of a measure he vetoed last week that would have amended the law imposing a cap on the number of alien workers employed in garment factories.

Rep. Oscar M. Babauta, proponent of the legislation, said the proposal would have given flexibility to garment firms to absorb the employment quota provided to another company that decides to merge its operations.

This will not increase the number of guest workers in the sector as Tenorio claimed when he disapproved the bill last week, according to the representatives.

“It would not create a loophole and open up opportunities for further hiring of garment workers,” Babauta told in an interview. “The intent was to allow flexibility to continue hiring the same level when one company decides to turn over to another corporation its quota.”

The governor vetoed the proposed amendment to Public Law 11-76 in fear that it could open up a loophole to increase, instead of reduce, the garment sector’s foreign labor pool.

Babauta’s bill had sought to clear ambiguous provisions of that law which was implemented earlier this year to place absolute quota on number of alien workers for each factory.

According to lawmakers, the provision on attrition only applies to garment firms found to be violating local and federal laws or those that have shut down, but does not include companies merging or restructuring their operations.

Introduced last April, the amendment was prompted by reports that the Department of Labor and Immigration had been denying applications for work permit by some garment factories that decided to merge operations with another firm.

But Tenorio asked the Legislature to give time for the impact of the law — which is part of the reform measures implemented by his administration to curb the population of nonresident workers in the Northern Marianas — before amending it.

“I would be seeking an audience with the governor in the near future to clearly explain the rationale behind the technical amendment because some licensees want to move out of the Commonwealth due to economic reasons,” said Babauta.

He added that he does not support “a complete attrition” on licensing. “If somebody can takeover the company, that will be additional revenues again for the government.”