Previous Story
EEOC loses contempt motion
|
Posted on Mar 15 2001
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lost in the contempt motion it filed against Sako Corporation, a Saipan garment manufacturer, before Judge Alex Munson.
EEOC’s motion arose out of an August 2000 settlement where Sako Corp. agreed to reimburse the medical expenses of five employees related to their pregnancies.
EEOC asked that Sako be held in contempt for failing to pay a total of $8,533.27 to the five workers. However, at yesterday’s hearing, EEOC could only produce three receipts that had not been paid by Sako, totaling only $464.34.
EEOC even admitted that Sako had not seen or been asked to pay on the three newly produced receipts until the morning of the contempt hearing.
“EEOC should be ashamed,” commented Michael W. Dotts, the attorney for Sako. “The contempt motion was completely baseless.”
EEOC also sought and failed to hold Sako in contempt because Sako had not paid $11,000 owed to Carmencita Abad, a former employee of Sako.
Ms. Abad was owed this money under the same settlement. Sako had paid the money into an account of the Superior Court, instead of paying it to Ms. Abad, pursuant to a Superior Court order.
The Superior Court had ordered Sako to deliver the settlement proceeds to it instead of Ms. Abad because two nonresident workers on Saipan had sued her for failing to repay a loan.
“Judge Munson recognized that Sako did nothing wrong to complying with an order of the Superior Court. What is amazing is that the EEOC could not seem to understand this,” said Mr. Dotts.
Mr. Dotts also stated that in September 2000, when the case between Sako and EEOC was settled, EEOC had agreed in court judgment to assist Sako by training its management on how to recognize and prevent discrimination, and that EEOC had failed to ever schedule the training.
