SGMA seeks better ties with US Labor

The Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association is courting the US Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division to agree on an arrangement similar to the Excellence 2000 program it enjoys with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“We would want to have a partnership agreement with Wage & Hour, where they would audit our firms then consult and recommend before issuing citations for violation,” said SGMA Executive Director Richard A. Pierce.

SGMA’s move seeking a partnership with Wage & Hour is seen as another step towards finally bringing Saipan’s garment industry in compliance with federal labor law.

Under the partnership, Mr. Pierce wants Wage & Hour to conduct an educational outreach initiative with emphasis on subcontracting as it related to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “hot goods” provisions.

He stressed that SGMA members received very little in explanation to their questions about the areas of the said provisions.

SGMA had previously raised a howl on Wage & Hour’s threat to seize as “hot goods” the shipments of any garment firm that fails to take responsibility over unpaid wages of employees hired by subcontractors.

The association made up of garment companies on the island is confident that it could duplicate the success it had with its Excellence 2000 program in whatever program it would implement together with Wage & Hour.

A month ago, OSHA Regional Administrator Frank Strasheim gave the industry not only a vote of confidence in turning its safety and health issues around but also declared that SGMA has become a model for the rest of the world.

SGMA’s Excellence 2000 program is a self-policing partnership with OSHA. The agreement encourages employers to carry out many of the routine safety and health inspections previously carried out by the Department of Labor agency.

At the same time SGMA is eyeing a partnership with Wage & Hour, Mr. Pierce also asked the division to temporarily suspend its enforcement activity on Saipan until the garment companies are made aware of certain provisions of the FLSA.

In a letter to Bruce Cranford, Targeted Industry Coordinator for the Wage & Hour Division, Mr. Pierce said the division should orient garment businesses more about the subcontracting practices allowed under the FLSA prior to Wage & Hour’s enforcement activity.

To further his point, the SGMA executive director quoted from Wage & Hour’s mission statement, which read: “The Wage & Hour mission is to achieve compliance with labor standards through enforcement, administrative and educational programs to protect the nation’s workers.”

Mr. Pierce also said that the SGMA wants to comply with the law and does recognize that ignorance is no excuse for non-compliance.

“We do however request that in all fairness to the businesses that the enforcement division visits, there be established a partnership between our association, your Targeted Coordinator’s office and the enforcement office of Wage & Hour,” he wrote in his letter to Mr. Cranford.

SGMA represents 31 of the island’s garment factories. It employs nearly 15,000 people, including 2,400 local residents.