Worker ordered to return to old employer
The Department of Labor has denied a request by a nonresident to move to a new employer pursuant to a law prohibiting consensual transfers from garment to non-garment employers.
Worker Zhang Hong Jing was ordered to return to her former employer, Grace International Inc., under her existing work permit.
Records showed that Zhang was previously employed by Grace International as a “presser” on a nonresident worker that is scheduled to expire on June 5, 2005.
In August 2004, Zhang applied for a consensual transfer from Grace to MITA Travel.
The department initially issued a grant of transfer relief, approving the consensual transfer and requiring MITA Travel to submit a complete permit application.
On Sept. 13, 2004, the department denied the transfer on the grounds that Public Law 12-11 prohibits a garment worker from consensually transferring during the employment contract to an employer outside the garment industry.
This prompted MITA Travel and Zhang to file the appeal.
In a May 17, 2005 administrative order, Labor hearing officer Jerry Cody affirmed the denial of Zhang’s request, saying that the department was correct in its decision.
Cody reported that in view of the prohibition against Zhang’s transfer outside the garment industry, Grace had agreed to reinstate Zhang as a nonresident employee of the company. “At the hearing, Zhang agreed to return to the employment of Grace and neither the department nor MITA Travel objected to that result,” Cody said. (Agnes E. Donato)
