3-year limit sidestepped by Senate

The lifting of the three-year stay limit imposed on nonresident workers in the CNMI will not happen in the very near future as a Senate committee reviewing the Omnibus Labor and Business Reform bill has decided to take it out of the proposal.

A separate discussion on the issue may be conducted, but it will not be part of the legislation seeking to repeal some of the labor and immigration reforms implemented by the government over the last two years.

The decision was made after the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic, Development and Programs noted that the residency restrictions on guest workers under Public Law 11-69 do not pose “immediate danger” to businesses.

Signed by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio in March last year, the law is expected to have its impact felt by March 2002. Business leaders have raised concern that it could trigger “mass exodus” of workers within the next two years.

Under the law, nonresidents are required to leave the CNMI after three years of consecutive stay on the islands and must remain outside by at least six months before they can be allowed for re-entry.

Legislators said PL 11-69 is CNMI’ s response to the federal government’s growing concern on the increasing number of foreign workers and prevent them from living on the island as disenfranchised residents whose children become U.S. citizens.

Disincentive

It is one of the laws that business groups like the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the hotel association have asked the Legislature to abolish, citing it as disincentive to doing business here on the islands and to wooing new investors.

“We have decided to take it out of the Omnibus bill because it will not take effect until two years from now and there is no immediate danger that will affect businesses,” according to the committee.

But he said that the consensus among the committee members, administration officials and private sector representatives is to retain the law, but cut the exit period from six months to one month.

A new draft

The panel is hoping to come up with a draft of the amended version of the Omnibus by this week which will be presented to the business groups, including the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, for their approval.

However, some senators appeared to be dissatisfied with the initial draft prepared by Senate legal counsel Steve Woodruff.
Maya Kara, the governor’s legal counsel, has been asked to work with the Senate to fine-tune several provisions, including employment transfer requirements, foreign investments in commercial fishing and farming and the $100,000 deposit requirement on investors.

Sponsored by Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, the Omnibus proposal or HB 12-39 seeks to repeal the labor moratorium, the three-year stay limit, the garment attrition scheme and fair resident workers compensation law in an effort to boost the local economy battered by the Asian crisis.

It cleared the lower house last March and is now awaiting a vote by the Senate after Mr. Reyes held public hearings and met several times with both parties to come up with a compromise bill.