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Alien worker sent home due to late permit application
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Posted on Feb 21 2005
A nonresident worker was ordered to leave the Commonwealth after he failed to find a new employer within the allowable 45-day transfer period.
Pradet Saithong was given until tomorrow, Feb. 23, to depart the CNMI at the expense of his last recorded employer, Onwel Garment Manufacturers. His name will be forwarded to the Division of Immigration for possible deportation if he fails to comply with the order.
Records showed that Saithong’s former labor permit with Onwel Garment expired on Aug. 22, 2004. However, no permit application was filed on his behalf until Oct. 20, 2004—two weeks after the 45-day transfer period expired.
The Department of Labor denied the transfer application on Dec. 6, 2004, on the ground of untimely filing.
At the Feb. 1, 2005 hearing, Saithong’s prospective employer, Blas Manzanares, said he wished to employ Saithong as a farmer on his one-hectare property in Marpi. Manzanares said he is not engaged in commercial farming operations; rather, he wished to hire Saithong as a “private” employee.
Manzanares attributed the untimely filing of the application to the delayed arrival of certain documents from Thailand. He presented at the hearing a copy of a certificate of service, dated Dec. 29, 1992, from the Rachaphruk Grand Hotel, attesting to Saithong’s employment as a farmer.
Such certificated is not required by the Labor Department in unskilled labor categories such as farmers, hearing officer Maya Kara noted in an administrative order.
Further, it was found that the employment contract attached to the application was executed on Oct. 18, 2004, also after the expiration of the 45-day period.
“Although the hearing officer may exercise discretion to excuse parties’ failure to meet a transfer deadline where the facts and circumstances make it fair to do so, I do not find that an equitable extension is warranted in this instance,” Kara said. “Employer’s excuse for the delay is neither reasonable nor credible. Nor does employee’s inaction in face of the pending deadline warrant an extension, especially after the expiration of the transfer period.”
