EEOC saves job of Grand Hotel worker

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) obtained a preliminary injunction for 90 days against the Saipan Grand Hotel from Judge Alex R. Munson in the District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The injunction will allow the EEOC to continue its investigation into a retaliation charge against the hotel by gardener-employee Alisanre Angeles who had previously filed four EEOC charges resulting in a settlement with the hotel.

It came one and a half months before the Saipan Grand Hotel notified him that they would not renew his employment contract. As a nonresident, Angeles would have faced deportation had the preliminary injunction not been granted.

Angeles alleged that the hotel’s basis for not renewing his employment – because a CNMI citizen applied for his job and is entitled to hiring preference under CNMI law – is a false reason, masking the real motive of retaliation.

In court, EEOC Trial Attorney Daphne Barbee-Wooten asserted that the hotel’s defense was questionable, as no local persons were referred as gardeners at the hotel until Angeles’ contract was up for renewal.

The injunction will allow the EEOC to proceed with a proper investigation to determine whether the Hotel’s actions constituted unlawful retaliation.

This is the second injunction EEOC has sought against the hotel, as well as the second EEOC investigation of retaliation by the hotel against this employee. Angeles originally filed a charge with EEOC on July 31, 1998, protesting the hotel’s policy of testing employees for HIV and publicly posting the results.

When the hotel then informed Angeles that his employment would not be renewed, he filed another EEOC complaint alleging retaliation. The EEOC obtained court orders requiring the hotel to continue to employ Angeles so that he could be available for the EEOC’s investigation.

On August 30, 1999, the Saipan Grand Hotel settled Angeles’ charges of retaliation by agreeing to pay him $5,000 and to renew his one-year employment contract each year for the foreseeable future. However, on October 7, 1999, the hotel informed Angeles that it would not renew his contract, which expired the next day.

Angeles immediately filed another charge with the EEOC on October 9, claiming that Saipan Grand Hotel was again retaliating against him. On October l8, the EEOC obtained a temporary restraining order from the district court requiring the hotel to continue employing Angeles until the hearing on October 28.

“The EEOC’s ability to effectively investigate charges of discrimination is jeopardized when workers suffer retaliation and intimidation for asserting their civil rights,” stated Regional Attorney William R. Tamayo. “We therefore take immediate action in cases such as this one, involving apparent retaliation.”

According to Susan L. McDuffie, district director for the San Francisco District Office, “if we allowed Mr. Angeles to lose his job in this case, he would be unable to afford to live on Saipan and would return to his native Philippines, where we would have great difficulty communicating with him. This would interfere with our
mandate to properly investigate and enforce the federal anti-discrimination laws in the CNMI.”

The EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (race, color, sex, national origin, religion), the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Equal Pay Act. The San Francisco District’s jurisdiction includes Northern and Central California, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Wake Island and the CNMI.