Formal complaint lodged against Marianas Variety • Due to alleged violation of local and federal laws

In what appears to be an interesting twist of events, a local company that pioneered news reporting in the Northern Marianas turns out to be a good source of news itself.

Marianas Variety is now stormed with formal complaints for alleged unfair labor practice, an untimely resignation of its production manager and a runaway employee who escaped barely a month after his arrival on Saipan.

Two former contractual employees of Marianas Variety cried foul on what they claim was an act of illegal termination by Younis Art Studio, the newspaper’s publishing company, and the company’s alleged violation of existing local and federal labor laws.

Jose Dexter G. Merijilla and Roberto O. Carpizo filed a formal complaint before the CNMI Department of Labor and Immigration alleging that they were not given a fair opportunity by the Marianas Variety management to air their side on allegations that they fell short on their respective duties.

The two contract workers have also sought the assistance of the federal labor office on Saipan. They said U.S. Labor representative Donna Hart informed them that their complaint has already been forwarded to the Honolulu office.

They also said that they were told by Ms. Hart that the U.S. Labor can only assist them in the recovery of unpaid wages, and that all the other complaints should be filed to the local labor department first.

Mr. Merijilla’s employment contract was to expire August 27, 2000 while that of Mr. Carpizo’s concludes on the 22nd of this month. Both were served their walking papers April 24 which took effect May 15, 2000.

Both their termination papers were signed by Marianas Variety publisher Abed Younis, who claimed that the employees have lost their reliability and credibility due to “repeated neglects, mistakes and wrong performance in the job.”

In their sworn statement submitted before the Enforcement Section of DOLI’s Labor Division, the two employees said there was never a time did the Marianas Variety management issue a memorandum demanding explanation for their alleged mistakes.

Instead, the employees alleged that Marianas Variety operations manager Laila Younis on April 7, 1999 ordered Mr. Merijilla’s suspension, along with another co-worker, without the benefit of due process and fair treatment.

The suspension came after Marianas Variety production strippers, of which Mr. Merijilla is one, mistakenly placed the picture of CNMI Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio instead of Pedro A. Tenorio.

Ms. Younis’ letter was the management’s first warning that also came as a notice of three-day suspension from April 12-14, 1999. Another employee was suspended along with Mr. Merijilla because of this incident.

Mr. Merijilla claimed this was in violation of the YAS Employees Handbook which guarantees that the first offense should be dealt with no more than just a verbal warning from and counseling with the management.

Alleged violations

Aside from illegal termination of contract, the complaint also include scores of other alleged violations of local and federal labor laws committed by the Marianas Variety management:

• Deductions of one hour against overtime rendered which applied to all departments, which specifically mentioned previous time cards of art and production staff;

• Unpaid excess time of work rendered, particularly by artists from 1998 to present;

• Unsanitary condition of the production area, using only two units of small exhaust fans which are not sufficient, with chemicals being inhaled by night-shift employees posing health risks;

• Uncovered container with hazardous acid chemicals used for engraving are placed at the former dark room of the production area;

• Employees holding a certain category but are actually assigned a different job such as a microfilm operator working as sales and lay-out artist, stenographer working as typesetter, and typesetter working as graphic artist; and

• Sad condition of the Marianas Variety barracks in Dandan with some male and female employees living in one house and sharing one bathroom.

Before this, Marianas Variety production staff Elias Tumbaga escaped and returned to Manila only a little over one month since his arrival on Saipan.

While he cited as reasons his health problems in a recent letter to the management, Mr. Tumbaga has openly expressed disappointment over the company’s housing facility in Dandan.

Just last week, production manager Noel Brady resigned after only less than six months of employment with the newspaper publisher, and sought the assistance of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and the DOLI to enjoin Marianas Variety management to issue him a repatriation ticket to Manila.

OSHA Notification

At the same time, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a Notification of Alleged Hazards which was posted at the Marianas Variety office in Garapan arising from a complaint lodged by its former telephone operator.

The employee, a permanent United States resident alien has since then resigned from the Marianas Variety, and is now working for another company.

Although OSHA did not conduct an inspection, it has asked the management in a letter dated Dec. 7, 1999 to investigate the alleged violation and make any necessary corrections or modifications.

“You must provide supporting documentation of your findings, including any applicable measurements or monitoring results, and photographs/video which you believe would be helpful, as well as a description of any corrective action you have taken or are in the process of taking,” said OSHA Enforcement and Investigations Director Leonard Limtiaco.

OSHA has also informed Mr. Younis that it may be forced to conduct an inspection which would include a review of injury and illness records, hazard communication, personal protective equipment, emergency action or response, blood-borne pathogens, confined space entry, lockout and related safety and health issues.

Mr. Limtiaco also said OSHA selects for inspection cases where it has received letters in which employers have indicated satisfactory corrective action to ensure that the actions have been actually taken as claimed in the letter.

It is OSHA’s goal to assure that hazards are promptly identified and eliminated, adding that the OSHA Act allows that a citation or a notification of proposed penalty may be issued only after an inspection or investigation is conducted.